AFSCME 3299 OFFERS UC PENSION COMPROMISE, RENEWS CALL FOR SAFE STAFFING

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 12, 2013

CONTACT: Todd Stenhouse, [email protected],
(916) 397-1131

AFSCME 3299 OFFERS UC PENSION COMPROMISE, RENEWS CALL FOR SAFE STAFFING

As UC Rejects Offer, AFSCME applauds introduction of Bi-Partisan Constitutional Amendment that would apply State Pension Reforms to UC Workers

Oakland: Nearly a year after their last contract expired and more than three months after current contract negotiations broke down, University of California Patient Care Technical Workers represented by AFSCME Local 3299 called UC Administrators back to the bargaining table yesterday to offer a compromise on the Administration’s core demand of post employment retirement benefits, in exchange for concessions on AFSCME’s core demand of safe staffing. UC rejected the proposal, and refused to offer any counter.

“This proposed compromise was about protecting patients,” said AFSCME 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger. “In rejecting our good faith offer, UC Administrators have not only shown contempt for the workers at the backbone of the UC medical system, but also a shocking disregard for the safety of the patients they serve.”

The offer came nearly two months after the first ever strike amongst UC Patient Care Technical workers back in May, which focused on chronic understaffing and corner cutting in the name of profit at UC’s taxpayer subsidized teaching hospitals.[i]
AFSCME attempted to restart negotiations in response to a recent tragedy at UC San Diego Medical Center—where it believes understaffing was a contributing factor in the death of a patient who had been admitted with a severe head injury, walked out of the facility wearing his hospital gown, and was found dead days later in a nearby canyon. [ii] Around the clock in-room nursing aides (also known as sitters) that would have been tasked with monitoring these types of cases have faced increased work-loads and reductions in work hours at UCSD. Instead, the hospital has increased its reliance on lower cost video monitoring.

“UC is demanding that its lowest paid workers agree to pay more and work longer in order to subsidize the six figure annual pensions that UC routinely shells out to its highest paid executives,” added Lybarger. “AFSCME is demanding that UC agree to industry standards on staffing so we can prevent more tragedies like the one we just had in San Diego.”

AFSCME’s proposals on staffing include safe staffing committees with 3rd party dispute resolution, limits on contracting out, guaranteed breaks, and the transitioning of long term temporary employees into career positions.

AFSCME’s compromise pension proposal included provisions that UC had previously claimed were central to its reform, including:

• A 1.5% increase in pension contributions for all existing and new employees, which will generate an estimated savings of $12 million for UCRP during the first year alone.
• Creation of a New Pension Tier with a higher retirement age for new employees—from 50 to 52 for minimum benefit and from 60 to 62 for maximum benefit.

To provide additional savings to the UC Retirement system, AFSCME has also urged UC Administrators to consider adopting the cap on Executive Pensions that was the centerpiece of the State Pension Reform signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.

UC employees are currently subject to a much higher cap on pensionable compensation—$255,000 or $380,000, depending on the date of hire. State Pension reform would lower the cap for new employees to $113,000. Approximately 5,000 UC Managers and Executives currently exceed this yearly salary threshold. Some, like the CEOs of UCSF and UCLA Medical Centers, will see their seven figure annual salaries augmented by hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in pension payouts when they retire.

A State Constitutional Amendment that would apply the State Pension Reform cap on UC employees was introduced on Wednesday by State Senator Leland Yee. The measure, SCA 15 already enjoys the support of a bi-partisan group of legislators.

“We applaud State Senator Yee’s efforts on SCA 15, which would produce  substantially more savings for UCRP and far greater fairness than anything UC has proposed,” added Lybarger. “SCA 15 also exposes the rank absurdity of UC demanding sacrifice from students, patients, taxpayers and low wage workers, while it writes checks as big as $300,000 every year to a growing group of multi-millionaires who are no longer working.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:
Concerns about patient care quality, safety and staffing levels within the highly profitable UC Medical System are not limited to the recent tragedy at UC San Diego:

• Inspections by The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services found 18 violations at UC San Diego Medical Center—including staffing and patient safety issues– in 2012 alone.[iii]
• UCLA Medical Center just received its second substandard patient safety rating in as many years from a leading healthcare buyers group. [iv]
• The UC Regents just settled a $1.2 million federal whistleblower settlement charging patient neglect at UC Irvine.[v]
• The State Department of Health has levied hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and nearly a dozen findings of “immediate jeopardy” at UC Irvine and UC San Francisco since 2009.[vi]
• UC’s VP of Health Services John Stobo recently acknowledged that UC’s clinical care services “don’t do so well,” and cited lagging affordability and patient satisfaction ratings.[vii] Starting next year, Medicare and Medicaid Reimbursement will be tied to patient satisfaction scores.
• Last month, a bi-partisan group of State Legislators voted unanimously to launch an audit into the UC Medical system’s finances and staffing levels.[viii]

[i] www.afscme3299.org/putpatientsfirst
[ii] http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Body-of-Missing-UCSD-Medical-Center-Patient-Thomas-Vera-Found-209770311.html
[iii] http://www.hospitalinspections.org/hospital/university-of-califo-50025
[iv] http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/08/local/la-me-hospital-ratings-20130509
[v] http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/28/local/la-me-uci-medical-20130328
[vi] California Health and Human Services Agency, Statement of Deficiencies . . . for University of California, Irvine Medical Center and University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, October 25, 2008; June 17, 2009; July 15, 2009; March 3, 2010; March 4, 2010; July 22, 2010; October 21, 2010; January 18, 2011; April 5, 2011; May 11, 2011; and June 30, 2011.
[vii] http://www.uctv.tv/shows/UC-Center-for-Health-Quality-and-Innovation-Welcome-John-Stobo-25096
[viii] http://www.dailycal.org/2013/06/09/state-legislators-approve-audit-of-uc-medical-centers/