DR. RICHARD PAN TO JOIN UC WORKERS IN PROTEST OF OUTSOURCING AND SHORT STAFFING AT UC DAVIS MEDICAL CENTER TODAY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 28, 2014

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

Picket and Rally Scheduled at UC Davis Medical Center from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Today

Sacramento:  Assemblyman and Former UC Davis Faculty Member Dr. Richard Pan will join more than a hundred (100) UC workers today at a planned protest at UC Davis Medical Center.

The protest will focus on the problem of short staffing, UCDMC’s outsourcing of hospital custodial services to private contractors that deny their workers livable wages, benefits or a voice on the job.

AFSCME 3299, which represents UC Service and Patient Care Workers and organized today’s protest, has argued that UCDMC’s Environmental Services Department (Custodial Services) is understaffed by as many as 80 workers—leading to more worksite injuries and endangering patients who rely on their efforts to keep the hospital clean and safe.

Also at issue, is UCDMC’s decision to spend $1 million over the past year outsourcing frontline hospital custodial work to a private contractor which denied more than 40 outside workers performing the same jobs as career UC employees access to fair wages, benefits or a voice on the job.   Had UCDMC brought the workers in-house, it could have saved as much as $240,000 already, and could save as much as $130,000 per year moving forward.

“By treating its custodial workers fairly, UC Davis Medical Center could save money, reduce workplace injuries, provide a cleaner care environment for patients and pull more of our neighbors out of poverty ” said AFSCME 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger.  “For the sake of those who do the most physically demanding work at this hospital and the safety of the patients they serve, we are demanding they do just that.”

WHO: Assemblyman Dr. Richard Pan, M.D.; AFSCME 3299 Represented UC Service and Patient Care Technical Workers; Subcontracted EVS workers at UC Davis Medical Center 

WHAT: Safe Staffing Picket and Rally 

WHEN: Tuesday, October 28th, 11 a.m.-1p.m. 

WHERE: UC Davis Medical Center, 2315 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento