Tons of of well being care staff at UCSF Benioff Kids’s Hospital Oakland at the moment are on strike indefinitely, opposing what they are saying is a severe pay minimize that may damage staff and likewise sufferers.
The strike comes because the College of California strikes to transition staff from employment by the hospital to the UC system. Hanging members of the Nationwide Union of Healthcare Employees, the union that represents greater than 1,000 therapists, social staff and different staff on the hospital and its clinics, say that change will lead to a lack of seniority and fewer take-home pay for staff, and that skilled staff may go away.
UCSF Well being acknowledges the monetary hit some staff would take however stated the change, set to happen by July 6, will assist unify its workforce and “deliver even better care” throughout the Bay Space. The well being system, which took over Kids’s Hospital Oakland — a long-time, extremely regarded security web hospital for the East Bay and past — in 2014, operates one other kids’s hospital within the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco.
“Employees at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland are transitioning to UC employment and joining the same public-sector union that represent their colleagues,” UCSF Well being stated in a press release. “Some take-home pay may change because today, many employees pay nothing toward their health insurance or retirement.”
On Wednesday, a whole lot of individuals gathered in entrance of the hospital on the nook of 52nd Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Method, the air punctuated by loud honking from passing automobiles and vehicles and tables on the sidewalk laden with lunch for putting staff.
These in attendance included folks on strike, colleagues there in solidarity and different supporters carrying purple union shirts, holding indicators, marching and dancing.
Ruth Crowe, a social employee within the neonatal intensive care unit, smiled within the sea of purple shirts as she greeted her present and former coworkers on the sidewalk outdoors her office.
However her smile shortly disappeared when requested what’s at stake.
“They’re trying to turn Oakland into a ghost hospital, where the license remains, but there are no employees,” she stated, of UCSF Well being’s quickly approaching timeline to re-hire present staff of the personal nonprofit hospital as UCSF staff, the newest transfer within the decade-long “integration” of Oakland’s kids’s hospital into UCSF Well being.
Crowe will not be technically on strike as a result of her unit’s contract has not but expired, however she selected to not cross the picket line on Wednesday and to affix her fellow union staff outdoors.
She has labored on the hospital for 23 years, and says if the strike and a lawsuit by the union to attempt to cease the change fails, she is taking a look at taking a giant minimize in her take-home pay. However she and others are additionally involved about UCSF’s dedication to serving the East Bay, and the expertise of sufferers, lots of whom already journey lengthy distances to Oakland. Employees fear extra providers will transfer from Oakland to San Francisco, leaving low-income households particularly weak.
“Our patients take numerous buses just to get here,” stated Heather Stenger, a pediatric audiologist who stated her division’s caseload is so full the following open appointment is in January.
“What we’ve seen during this affiliation that we’ve had is that UCSF has taken more and more control, Children’s Hospital Oakland has lost more autonomy, and we’ve seen that in how services are provided,” Crowe stated.
On Wednesday, some affected person visits had been rescheduled or transformed to telehealth appointments, however emergency providers remained open.
“We have taken steps to ensure that our young patients still have access to important critical care services, including the emergency department and operating rooms,” UCSF stated.
Picketers hope the strike and lawsuit will immediate the well being system to rethink the transition to UCSF.
“We have tried in good faith to negotiate with UCSF Health,” stated Rosie Brooks, a NUHW member on strike. “They flat out refused to pick an arbitrator.”
Brooks has labored on the hospital as a telecommunications operator for almost 26 years. Working on the hospital “was a dream” she stated, since she moved to Oakland as a toddler and was herself a affected person on the hospital. Now she says she is perhaps taking a $10,000 minimize in her take-home pay if the transition goes by.
“What’s going to happen? We are going to have to seek other employment, possibly take on a second or third job,” Brooks stated.
It’s unclear how lengthy the strike will final.
