Note: Some of these stories may require a subscription.
NPR published a national story about NUHW members Adriana Webb, Zhane Sandoval, Aida Valdivia, Nick Nunez, Kassaundra Gutierrez-Thompson, and Ana Vargas Garcia highlighting their five-day hunger strike while they and over 2,000 mental healthcare workers continue a six-month labor stoppage against Kaiser. Dolores Huerta and musician Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine visited the hunger strikers. The article also points to the renewal of mediation between Kaiser and mental healthcare workers after the first attempt was stopped because the healthcare giant was not willing to discuss the top issues in the contract negotiations: more mandated time between therapy sessions for patient follow-up, restoration of pension benefits, and fair cost-of-living wage increases. CalMatters, LAist and San Gabriel Valley Tribune also wrote an article on the renewal of negotiations, Spectrum News, and The Pride LA wrote a piece about the hunger strike.
Debra Lehnhard, a registered nurse at Providence’s Healdsburg Hospital in Sonoma County was featured in a Northern California Public Radio story about NUHW now representing workers in all Northern California Providence facilities after workers there recently voted overwhelmingly to join the union. The workers represented at the 43-bed hospital include registered nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, housekeepers, and medical technicians. Currently, all NUHW members at Providence facilities in Northern California are bargaining union contracts. Becker’s Hospital Review and KymKemp and also published similar stories.
Courthouse News wrote about a complaint NUHW filed against Kaiser, documenting that it’s violating state law by having unlicensed clerical workers, using an algorithm, to triage mental health patients seeking care.
Anna Nusslock, a chiropractor who nearly bled to death while miscarrying twins last year because the hospital refused her life-saving abortion care, is suing Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka and its parent companies in Humboldt Superior Court. According to the Los Angeles Times, she hopes the action will force the company’s California hospitals to follow state law. The suit builds on a September action filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, accusing the hospital of violating the state’s emergency services law.
Democratic Assembly member Dr. Joaquin Aramabula has introduced Assembly Bill 4 which would allow undocumented immigrants to enroll in Covered California — the state’s health insurance marketplace that was established through the Affordable Care Act. CapRadio reported this comes as the Newsom administration recently announced it would borrow $3.4 billion from the general fund in part because more undocumented residents signed up for MediCal coverage than it anticipated.
Citing recent Medicare and Medicaid cuts as well as tariffs, Becker’s Hospital Review reported that Providence announced that it’s pausing nonclinical hiring as part of an effort to ensure the health system’s financial sustainability, according to President and CEO Erik Wexler.
