Healthcare workers are uniting across the state to send a
message to the Daughters of Charity Health System:
”
Enough is enough.
”
Healthcare workers are uniting across the state to send a message to the Daughters of Charity Health System: “Enough is enough.”
The sentiment echoes the attitude of 2,400 union workers, including 190 at Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy, who will walk out for one day Aug. 28 protesting a contract that they characterize as “gutted” and “disappointing,” although administrators feel that they are doing their part to find a happy medium.
“We want to do what’s best for our patients, but management is bargaining in bad faith and trying to take away our voice at work,” said Claudette Mandin, a certified nursing assistant at Saint Louise, a 93-bed facility. “We’re going on strike because it’s necessary to show Daughters management that we won’t sit by and let them take away our voice in improving patient care.”
Chief Executive Officer Joanne Allen and other Saint Louise Regional Hospital officials did not return phone messages but Lin Velasquez, vice president of human resources responded with a written statement in an e-mail.
“We are disappointed with the union’s decision to force a strike against our hospital and our patients,” she wrote. “We have prepared for this and will bring in temporary replacement workers so that we can continue to run our hospital safely and deliver high quality patient care to our community.
“We have worked very hard to present the union with fair proposals for our associates. In the past several bargaining sessions, we have reached agreement on numerous important issues and believe that more progress can be made at the bargaining table. In fact, as agreed upon with the union, we have not yet begun to discuss wages or benefits for our associates, two very important issues in the contract.
“We believe it is a mistaken strategy for the union to call a strike, especially before we have had a full and complete discussion about these important issues. Reaching an agreement requires constructive discussion and a willingness to compromise by both sides. We hope that union leaders will continue our discussions and negotiate in good faith.”
Nursing assistants, lab technicians, food service workers, housekeepers and hospital clerks – part of the Service Employees International Union, United Healthcare Workers – at Saint Louise and other Daughters of Charity facilities throughout the state hit the picket lines last month to demand a stronger voice in patient care and increased job security. These employees earn anywhere form $15 to $36 per hour, said John Borsos, vice president of UHW.
Last week’s negotiations were cut short when union representatives canceled the fourth day out of sheer frustration, said Ernest Gonzales, a union steward at Saint Louise.
“It was getting ridiculous,” he said, referring to the amount of time he said the union wasted waiting around for the hospitals to come back with proposals.
Union representatives submitted strike notices to their respective hospitals Friday at noon.
The strike notice gives management ample time to plan ahead by canceling elective surgeries, reducing the number of patients and preparing managers to work on the floor, according to union literature.
During negotiations, hospital representatives took some of their original proposals – which weakened language spelled out in the union contract that expired April 30 – off the bargaining table, and called it progress, Gonzales said.
However, the two bodies still butted heads on two main points: a manager’s rights clause and job security. The manager’s rights clause would allow the administration to make changes to anything that isn’t specifically spelled out in the contract, without bargaining with union employees first, Gonzales said.
“We do not want a management rights (clause), period.” said Kristi Murillo, a local steward for the union and an emergency room registrar at Saint Louise.
“If they want to make a change, let’s negotiate it,” Gonzales said. “What’s so hard about that?”
Workers are also fighting for enhanced job security by asking for a contract that guarantees shifts. When patient numbers are low, workers are often told not to come into work, Gonzales said. When the numbers jump later in the shift, the hospital doesn’t restore those canceled shifts, he said, resulting in a high ratio of patients to certified nursing assistants and other staff. To ensure better staffing levels, “let’s not cancel these people,” he said.
“There’s always something to do,” he said. “Send them to the ER, send them to ICU, float them around.”
The union also wants the hospitals to create a fund that would be used as a safety net for employees that are laid off, providing them with education and counseling before letting them go, or reassigning them to another Daughters of Charity facility, Gonzales said.
“They’re supposed to be a nonprofit, charity hospital,” he said. “Why can’t they invest in their employees’ well being?”
Along with Saint Louise, workers at O’Connor Hospital in San Jose, Seton Medical Center in Daly City, Seton Coastside in Moss Beach and St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood will stage a 24-hour strike beginning 6 a.m. Aug. 28.
In 2004, the hospital and union workers struck a deal just hours before a a one-day strike was scheduled.
Another round of negotiations is scheduled for Wednesday in San Jose.
“The Daughters of Charity have every opportunity to avoid a strike,” Gonzales said.
