Doctors San Pablo Caregivers to Picket Hospital Tomorrow
What: Informational picket*
Where: Doctors Medical Center San Pablo, 2000 Vale Road, San Pablo, 94806
When: Wednesday, March 7, 11:30am to 1:30pm
Visuals: Caregivers marching in front of hospital with picket signs and bullhorns
San Pablo, California – Members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) at Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo will engage in an informational picket tomorrow, Wednesday, March 7, from 11:30am to 1:30pm.
Last summer, caregivers at Doctors San Pablo reached agreement with management for a union contract with no benefit cuts. Recognizing the hospital’s financial challenges, NUHW members agreed to forestall any wage increase until a measure for a parcel tax to bring an additional $5 million to the medical center was passed by voters. Both parties agreed to re-open discussion of wages in February of this year in the event of the measure’s passage. Voters approved Measure J last November with a 74 percent ‘yes’ vote.
When workers sat down to bargain wages with management last month, the hospital offered a one percent wage increase, offset by proposed cuts to workers’ health insurance. At the same time that administrators are proposing benefit cuts to hospital staff, management is paying for the services of Wellspring Partners, an out-of-state management consulting firm with origins in the Enron scandal of 2001.
“In a time of severe economic difficulty for working families like ours, we made a sacrifice to help solidify the hospital’s finances,” said Duka Ristic, Lead Ultrasound Tech. “Now management is trying to take advantage of the situation to give us a raw deal.”
NUHW represents about 350 workers at Doctors San Pablo, including Respiratory Care Practitioners, Licensed Vocational Nurses, Certified Nursing Assistants, Radiology Technologists, Housekeepers and Dietary workers.
*An informational picket is a public demonstration. It is not a work stoppage.