Day Two Of California Workers’ Strike: ‘We Want To Make A Splash But We Don’t Want To Shut Down The Hospital’
Thousands of University of California workers were joined in sympathy strikes by the California Nurses Association and the University Professional & Technical Employees.
Los Angeles Times:
'We Are Humans Too': Voices Of UCLA's Striking Custodians, Hospital Aides And Imaging Technicians
This week, thousands of UC employees are staging a three-day strike for better pay and working conditions. On Monday, more than 20,000 custodians, cooks, lab technicians, nurse aides and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 walked off their jobs. By Tuesday, two more unions joined in sympathy strikes. The union and UC reached a bargaining impasse last year. The university has said it won’t meet the workers’ demands. (Resmovits, 5/8)
Los Angeles Times:
UC Labor Strike Expands With Show Of Support From More Unions
Fong Chuu is a registered nurse who has assisted with countless liver transplants, kidney surgeries and gastric bypasses during 34 years at UCLA. Working with her are scrub technicians who sterilize equipment, hand medical instruments to the surgeon and dress patient wounds. They are a team, Chuu says, which is why she walked off her job Tuesday in support of those technicians and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299. The 25,000 member AFSCME local, the University of California's largest employee union, launched a three-day strike Monday. (Watanabe, 5/8)
Sacramento Bee:
UC Strike Day 2: Nurses March With Strikers At UC Davis Medical Center
Roughly 1,400 workers picketed for a second day at the UC Davis hospital and campus on Tuesday, as two unions representing nurses and physical therapists, social workers and dietitians went on strike in sympathy with members of AFSCME 3299. ...Combined, the three unions have about 10,000 members at UC Davis and 53,000 system-wide. (Sullivan and Anderson, 5/8)
KQED:
UC Nurses, Hospital Staff Join Service Workers' Strike
Striking University of California service workers got reinforcements Tuesday, as nurses and technical staffers joined them on the picket lines outside medical centers around the state. ...Negotiations between the university system and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 broke down after more than a year of bargaining. (Dillon, 5/8)
Capital Public Radio:
California Hospitals, Officials Take Careful Steps To Minimize Patient Impact During UC Labor Strikes
Nurses across the University of California system are striking this week to support janitors, technicians and other hospital workers demanding higher wages and better health care. But patients aren’t likely to notice much difference in care. The California Nurses Association joined the strike at the UC Davis Medical Center on Tuesday, filing into the picket line with two workers’ unions that started a day earlier. (Caiola, 5/8)
In other news —
Sacramento Bee:
Sutter Health Employees Testify They Were Denied Breaks
At hearings unfolding this week and next week at the California Labor Commissioner's Office, Sutter Health employees testified that they were not able to take meal breaks or rest breaks because of chronic understaffing in their departments at Sutter’s Capitol Pavilion Surgical Center in midtown Sacramento. In total, about 30 employees at the Capitol Pavilion Surgery Center are requesting thousands of dollars in compensation for both meal and rest breaks that they say they were forced to miss. (Anderson, 5/8)