Workers Strike at Nine Sutter-Owned Hospitals in Bay Area
Workers at nine Sutter Health-owned Bay area hospitals went on strike Monday, protesting the not-for-profit hospital chain's "failure to include employees in hospital decision-making," the Contra Costa Times reports. About 2,300 licensed vocational nurses, medical technicians and other service workers walked off the job Monday (Chang, Contra Costa Times, 4/17). The hospitals targeted include Alta Bates Medical Center and Alta Bates Herrick in Berkeley, Summit Medical Center in Oakland, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo, Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport and California Pacific Medical Center's three campuses in San Francisco (San Francisco Chronicle, 4/17). To avoid service disruptions, Sutter hired 700 temporary employees to fill in for the striking workers. Service Employees International Union Local 250, which represents the health care workers, has "demanded" that Sutter establish "worker committees to review hospital procedures and give them the power to enforce recommendations through an independent arbitrator." While Sutter offered to form the committees, the health system agreed to hire an arbitrator for only six months. According to union President Sal Rosselli, Sutter workers previously have struck seven times "over the right to form such committees." This week's strike is scheduled to last until Wednesday (Contra Costa Times, 4/17).
This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.