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La Opinion, ABC7, CBS, FoxLA, KTLA, KPBS , Counterpunch, Labor Notes and The Militant covered the civil disobedience and protest held by striking Kaiser mental health workers in front of Kaiser’s Los Angeles Medical Center on Friday, February 7. NUHW members Ligia Pacheco, Marisela Calvillo, Marcy Pullard, Adrianna Webb, and NUHW President Emeritus Sal Rosselli were featured in stories about the action. Workers have been on strike since October 21, 2024 as they seek parity with their Northern California counterparts, who won significant gains in a 2022 10-week strike.
The LAist covered Governor Newsom’s call for mediation to end the 19-week strike by Kaiser mental healthcare workers in Southern California. NUHW has agreed to the mediation; Kaiser has yet to respond to the governor’s request.
NUHW’s lead negotiator in the Kaiser mental healthcare worker strike, Greg Tegenkamp, is quoted in a California Healthline story about the HMO being back in the hot seat for not providing adequate mental health care to its 9 million members and as NUHW members in Southern California wage a strike that’s now in its fifth month.
Lost Coast Outpost, Times-Standard, Press Democrat, Petaluma Argus Courier, KSRO, NorCal Public Radio, and KRCR, covered the coordinated informational pickets NUHW members held across Providence hospitals and facilities in Northern California on Wednesday, February 12. More than 2,000 healthcare workers who are bargaining new contracts at Providence hospitals and hospices held their first region-wide Day of Action to call attention to severe understaffing and sharp cuts to health services in communities that are dependent on Providence for their medical care.
Sutter Health announced it will build a campus in the City of Emeryville featuring a regional destination ambulatory care complex and a new medical center with an initial capacity of up to 200 beds. SFist reported that Sutter is investing more than $1 billion on the 12-acre project that will offer outpatient and acute care services, medical office space and parking. California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a letter to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles warning that withholding services for transgender patients could violate state law. The L.A. hospital said it has paused the initiation of hormonal therapy for “gender affirming care patients” under the age of 19, as well as any gender-affirming surgeries for minors. According to Los Angeles Times, the move followed an executive order by President Trump that targets the use of puberty blockers, hormones and other “gender affirming care” for transgender youth. Bonta also joined a coalition of more than a dozen attorneys general in issuing a statement saying that there is no federal law that makes gender-affirming care illegal and that “President Trump cannot change that by Executive Order.” Experts and LGBTQ+ advocates have also stressed that many of the actions demanded under the executive order hinge on federal rule-making that has yet to be carried out.
