For Immediate Release:
July 14, 2021

Contact:
Renée Saldaña
[email protected]

SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has unanimously passed a resolution condemning Dignity Health’s treatment of its security officers and calling on the corporate healthcare giant to “immediately respect the will of these workers by recognizing them as members of SEIU-UHW.”

With the 11-0 vote, the Board joins dozens of other elected bodies and leaders — including U.S. Senator Alex Padilla — in expressing outrage over Dignity Health’s mistreatment of the security officers who are the first line of defense for patients and caregivers across the chain’s facilities.

“I’ve had psychiatric patients attack me, fracture my nose, and smash up my face,” said Jordan Pang, a security officer at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco. “But Dignity Health refuses to provide us the staffing, protective gear, and training to do our jobs. They just don’t seem to take safety and security seriously.”

The resolution calls out Dignity Health for numerous violations, including:

• Placing security officers at grave risk of COVID-19 infection due to lack of personal protective equipment, unsafe staffing levels, and inadequate pandemic safety protocols.
• Failing to address workplace violence and showing a general disregard for the well-being of security officers.
• Refusing to recognize security officers’ right to form their union — even though the vast majority of officers have signed union authorization cards to join SEIU-UHW.

The resolution also notes that complaints have been filed against Dignity Health with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) due to numerous safety violations, including routine failures to screen people entering the hospital, failure to enforce social distancing rules, failure to train security guards on COVID-19 protocols, and failure to report COVID-19 cases to security guards with potential exposure.

CommonSpirit/Dignity Health made $2.7 billion in profits in the last half of 2020, has received $1.3 billion in federal pandemic relief funds, pays the company CEO over $11 million a year, and pays 28 executives over $1 million a year.

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SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is a healthcare justice union of more than 100,000 healthcare workers, patients, and healthcare activists united to ensure affordable, accessible, high-quality care for all Californians, provided by valued and respected healthcare workers. Learn more at seiu-uhw.org or follow SEIU-UHW on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.