What Patients Need To Know About The Hospital Workers’ Strike
Some University of California workers, including some hospital employees, are planning a three-day strike this week. People who are in need of emergency assistance will be able to get help, but patients might have to reschedule elective surgeries.
Los Angeles Times:
More Than 50,000 UC Workers Set To Strike This Week But Campuses Will Remain Open
UC's largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, plans to begin a three-day strike Monday involving 25,000 workers, including custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. The union and university reached a bargaining impasse last year, and subsequent mediation efforts have failed to produce an agreement over wage increases, healthcare premiums and retirement terms. Two other unions have approved sympathy strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday. About 14,000 members of the California Nurses Assn., who work at UC's medical centers and student health clinics, are set to walk off their jobs, along with 15,000 members of the University Professional & Technical Employees, who include pharmacists, clinical social workers, physical therapists, physician assistants and researchers. (Watanabe, 5/6)
Sacramento Bee:
About 53,000 Hospital Workers Start 3-Day Strike Monday
About 10,000 of the 53,000 workers represented in the strike work for the University of California, Davis, on its campus or in its medical center. ... In a statement emailed the The Bee, a spokeswoman [for the UC Davis Medical Center] said, “We have a strike management plan in place and we are prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of our patients in the face of this short labor strike. ... Some same-day surgeries are being handled this week, some procedures are being moved from early next week to later next week, and some are being moved into the following week." (Sullivan, 5/7)
In other news —
Sacramento Bee:
Current, Ex-Sutter Health Employees Say Company Prevented Them From Taking Breaks
In hearings that begin Monday, about 30 current and former employees at Sutter Health’s midtown Sacramento surgery center will accuse the health-care giant of preventing them from taking meal and rest breaks and will ask the California Labor Commissioner to award them back wages and penalties. The Bee obtained copies of a half-dozen of the Sutter employees’ complaints in which plaintiffs seek anywhere from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars in lost wages and penalties. (Anderson, 5/4)