Menifee Valley Medical Center Protest Rally

Nearly 200 healthcare workers from three Valley Health System facilities, namely Hemet Valley HealthCare Center, Hemet Valley Medical Center and Menifee Valley Medical Center, held a June 18, 2008 protest rally to take a stand for their patients and future. 

VHS filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy and is bargaining with UHW.  VHS wants to implement millions of dollars of employee concessions to solve their financial problems.  The UHW bargaining team says they want real solutions to the VHS mismanagement of assets. 

“We are fighting to keep our jobs,” says Patricia Wilson, Chief Steward and UHW bargaining team member.  “Our community deserves results that keep our hospitals open.”

 Download the PDF June 19th Pro-Bargaining Update (1.3mb)

Nearly 2,000 California hospital workers from four hospitals and clinics celebrated union victories during the past 3 weeks as they voted in overwhelming numbers to join United Healthcare Workers-West. It's the biggest increase in members in one month for any union within SEIU. The union elections were held at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood; Catholic Healthcare West operated clinics in Sacramento; Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside; and Coastal Communities Hospital in Santa Ana. 

Watch our Victory Video on UHW YouTube 

 Prime Healthcare Purchases Encino Medical Center & Garden Grove Hospital

Click here to see newspaper articles about Prime Healthcare, a fact sheet on Prime’s owner, and an open letter to Encino and Garden Grove UHW members from members at Centinela Hospital:

• Hospital Buyer Offers Bitter Pill – Los Angeles Business Journal
• Hospital Juggernaut Adding Three Properties – Los Angeles Times
• Facts about Dr. Prem Reddy, Principle Owner of Prime Healthcare
• An Open Letter to UHW Members at Encino and Garden Grove from UHW Members at Centinela 

 SEIU’s Fastest Growing Local Adds 800 Members in the Last Week

Nearly 300 healthcare workers at Coastal Communities Hospital in Santa Ana voted to join UHW in an election held Friday, April 11. Newly organized members include service, technical, and professional workers at the hospital, which is owned by Integrated Healthcare Holdings Incorporated. IHHI operates three additional hospitals in Orange County including Western Medical Center Anaheim, Western Medical Center Santa Ana and Chapman Medical Center. In contract bargaining in 2007, UHW members at Western Medical Center Anaheim won organizing rights language at IHHI, paving the way for Coastal Community workers to join our union.

UHW members at Western Medical Center Anaheim

On April 9, more than 500 healthcare workers at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside officially joined UHW. Following the announcement of their victory, TCMC workers celebrated and began their plans to negotiate a strong first contract that protects patient care and makes much needed improvements in wages and benefits. TCMC workers join UHW members at Kaiser facilities in the region and Children’s Hospital San Diego as part of a growing number of unionized healthcare workers in largely non-union San Diego.

These victories follow a streak of recent UHW organizing victories including workers at St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood and a group of nine CHW clinics in Sacramento for a total of nearly 2,000 new UHW members in just the past month!

 CHW Bargaining Moves Full Steam Ahead

The 100 rank-and-file elected CHW bargaining team returns to the table this week to continue moving ahead on negotiations for one contract covering 12,000 CHW workers at 32 hospitals statewide. The team has already proposed almost all non-economic issues including a total ban on subcontracting and elimination of daily cancellation – both key components of our 2008 Unity Platform. CHW workers are leading the way in our 2008 campaign, setting the pattern for others who start negotiations later this year. Visit www.qualitycare2008.org for updates and details.

 Enloe Workers Take it to the Streets

Healthcare workers at Enloe Medical Center will hit the picket line on Friday, April 18 as another action in a long battle by Enloe workers to win an industry standard contract. Enloe workers are close to the victory line and are determined to fight to the end and to make sure that their contract meets the standards set by thousand of UHW workers across the state.

CHW workers

 UHW members win a quality contract with El Monte, Monterey Park hospitals

After over a year of bargaining, stickering up, attending rallies and signing petitions, UHW members prevailed, winning an improved contract for three hospitals managed by AHMC in Southern California -- Greater El Monte Community Hospital, Garfield Medical Center and Monterey Park Hospital.

In this contract, members won: the right to arbitrate staffing issues if the Patient Care Committee can’t resolve them; a 4 percent bonus the first year and wage increases of 5 percent the second year and 4 percent the third year; paid time for stewards, paid time for bargaining committee members; and a 3 percent employer match in a 401K plan.

 Newly organized CHW members begin bargaining their first contract

On April 1, our elected bargaining committee members from SEIU UHW-West and SEIU Local 121RN continued CHW negotiations. Newly organized workers from the nine CHW Mercy Medical Foundation Clinics in Sacramento took their seat at the bargaining table to negotiate their first-ever union contract alongside workers from 31 other CHW facilities. Their arrival at the bargaining table was met with applause by members of the UHW and 121RN bargaining committees.

UHW’s committee presented several new proposals and reasserted our position on all the issues currently on the table—including the need for a total ban on subcontracting, improved job security through an end to daily cancellations and layoffs, and stronger successorship protections in the event our hospitals are sold, and more. Visit www.qualitycare2008.org for video bargaining briefs and regular news on UHW’s 2008 contract bargaining campaign.

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From 4/1/2008 E-News:

 OVER ONE THOUSAND HEALTHCARE WORKERS VOTE TO JOIN UHW!

This past week, over one thousand new healthcare workers at St. Francis Medical Center (SFMC) in Lynwood and nine CHW Medical Foundation health clinics in the Sacramento area voted in separate elections to join UHW. St. Francis Medical Center is part of the Daughters of Charity Health System, while the clinics are a part of San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West. Before the elections, UHW already represented 15,000 caregivers at these two Catholic healthcare systems, which are among the largest hospital systems in the western U.S.

In earlier negotiations, UHW members at the two health systems won the right for non-union employees to join UHW under a “free and fair” election agreement, which establishes fair ground rules for the election process. At SFMC, caregivers prevailed in their union election despite the fact that SFMC executives violated the agreement by interfering in caregivers’ decision.

In addition to employer interference at SFMC, caregivers in both campaigns also prevailed in their efforts despite SEIU mailing a letter to UHW members in those facilities - just days before the election - containing outright lies about UHW having worked to disrupt union elections in Ohio.

Currently, UHW members at other Daughters of Charity hospitals and Catholic Healthcare West facilities are bargaining new contracts as part of UHW’s historic 2008 contract campaign, in which more than 75,000 nursing home and hospital workers are negotiating contracts covering more than 200 facilities throughout California.

 2008 Hospital Bargaining Heats Up

Bargaining between UHW and Catholic Healthcare West resumes March 26th with a session in San Francisco, followed by an April 1st session in Los Angeles. Our elected bargaining committee has presented fair proposals to help us recruit and retain the highest qualified caregivers including proposals which would create a total ban on layoffs, daily cancellations, and subcontracting; improve our Joint Labor-Management Training & Upgrade Fund; and provide more continuing education time for healthcare providers. Bargaining also begins this week with the Daughters of Charity Health System where workers at 5 facilities will come to one statewide bargaining table in San Jose on Tuesday March 25th. For bargaining updates on these campaigns and others check out www.qualitycare2008.org.

 Sutter Workers Cause a Stir in the Sierra Foothills

Sutter Amador workers, whose contract expired on February 18th, are taking their fight to the streets. This is their first contract fight as UHW members and workers are determined to win the same industry standards that thousands of other UHW hospital workers have already won. On March 10th Sutter Amador workers picketed in downtown Jackson during morning rush hour. They picketed again on March 13th, this time during evening rush hour. They were covered by the local newspaper and broadcast news stations. Both pickets spurred hundreds of community motorists to honk in support. Bargaining continues and the fight goes on.

 Huntington Park Workers Win an Industry Standard Contract

After a hard fought battle, on March 18th workers at Community and Mission Hospital of Huntington Park settled a great new contract. Among other industry standards, workers won wage scales to ensure equity, safe staffing language with arbitration, maintenance of health benefits, the UHW Training and Upgrade fund and restrictions on subcontracting. Over 40% of members signed up for COPE during the contract ratification vote.

From 3/17/2008 E-News:

 UHW wins, Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa agrees to stay open

After a 14-month struggle to fight off the closing of Sutter Health’s Santa Rosa acute-care facility, workers celebrated a major victory when the hospital, succumbing to public pressure, announced it would stay open. Sutter had previously announced its intention to leave Santa Rosa because the market wasn’t sufficiently profitable. The reversal is due, in part, to a significant campaign by UHW members, working with their community, aimed at making Sutter accountable to Sonoma County residents. The campaign involved mailings, phone calls, petitions and lobbying aimed at motivating county Board of Supervisors to vigorously defend the county’s needs.

 CHW bargaining team starts getting answers

Last week, nearly 100 bargaining committee members got their first set of answers from CHW as bargaining proceeds. In addition to presenting new proposals, our committee had discussions with the employer about our proposals to create a total ban on layoffs, daily cancellations, and subcontracting; improve our Joint Labor-Management Training & Upgrade Fund; and provide more Continuing Education Time for healthcare providers to take classes, maintain their licenses, and increase their education. The next bargaining session is March 26 in San Francisco.

 CHW bargaining picks up pace

UHW and 121RN’s 100-person statewide bargaining committee resumed negotiations with CHW on March 5th in Sacramento. Afterwards, members produced their first ever video bargaining update, viewable at www.qualitycare2008.org. After strengthening organizing rights in their 2004 contract, CHW workers’ key issues this year include staffing and quality, improving training and educational opportunities, and competitive wages and benefits to better recruit and retain caregivers. In 2004, CHW and Locals 121RN and UHW negotiated a master agreement that covers 32 facilities statewide. That contract expires April 30.

 Daughters of Charity workers head to bargaining table

Daughters of Charity becomes the second major health system to start bargaining in UHW's 2008 contract campaign, following on the heels of CHW, which began negotiations on Feb 28. Members at Daughters of Charity hospitals have elected their bargaining committee and begin negotiations on March 25. The master contract that covers nearly 2,000 workers at five of the system's six facilities expires April 30.

"We've been fighting for healthcare reform for years, but now we have an amazing opportunity to bring the issue to the bargaining table," said Donald Bolt, a respiratory therapist at St. Francis Medical Center.

UHW represents workers at O'Connor Hospital in San Jose, Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy, Seton Medical Center in Daly City, Seton Medical Center – Coastside in Moss Beach and St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. At St. Francis, workers in the service and skilled maintenance bargaining units are voting on whether to join UHW later this month.

 2008 Hospital Contract

Read about the 2008 hospital contracts that are up for renewal.

2008 Unity Platform to read more.

Each day, thousands of us go to work protecting quality patient care - from the smallest blood test, to taking x-rays, to ensuring sterile environments remain uncompromised. We see first hand how important political issues like access to health insurance and quality care standards impact our patients.