A week after labor negotiations brought big gains to employees
of the state’s largest hospital system, Saint Louise Regional
Hospital workers plan to strike against proposals handed down by
the Daughters of Charity Health System that just don’t seem to
stack up, according to union workers.
A week after labor negotiations brought big gains to employees of the state’s largest hospital system, Saint Louise Regional Hospital workers plan to strike against proposals handed down by the Daughters of Charity Health System that just don’t seem to stack up, according to union workers.
“After nearly seven months of bargaining and a statewide strike, administrators continue to refuse to engage our reasonable proposals, which seek to ensure that our hospitals have a stable, experienced and qualified workforce so we can provide the highest quality of care to our patients,” said Ernest Gonzales, union steward at Saint Louise. “Most notably, administrators have refused to agree to the same sensible workplace standards that have already been recently adopted by more than 60 hospitals operated by Catholic Healthcare West and Kaiser Permanente.”
Although union representatives said the administration is bargaining in bad faith, Saint Louise Vice President of Human Resources Lin Velasquez said that real change comes not on the picket line but at the bargaining table.
“We are always ready and willing to meet so we can accomplish the goal of settling the contract,” Velasquez said.
At 6 a.m. Wednesday, the union, which is 190 members strong at Saint Louise, will hold a 24-hour strike along with other members of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers at 10 hospitals across the state, five owned by the Daughters of Charity and five owned by Sutter Health. Daughters of Charity is one of the largest nonprofit healthcare systems in California, with approximately 1,600 hospital beds.
Union workers said that good contracts are vital to patient care and that they were left with no choice but to strike.
“While other hospitals are working collaboratively with their employees to improve the recruitment and retention of caregivers, Daughters of Charity administrators have approached our negotiations with a lack of seriousness and an outright antagonism towards our hospitals’ caregivers,” Gonzales said.Â
After the union and administration clashed over a management rights clause that would allow the administration to make changes to anything that isn’t specifically spelled out in the contract, without first bringing it to the bargaining table, they butted heads over salary increases and benefits.
The decision to strike comes less than a week after union workers negotiated a landmark agreement with Catholic Healthcare West, the state’s largest hospital system, bringing its practices in line with those of Kaiser Permanente facilities across the state, but Gonzales said the union is willing to bargain with the hospital every day up until the strike.
If the strike does go through, he expects more than 5,500 union members to either strike or hold informational pickets.
