Children’s Hospital Oakland workers call on UC Regents to quash UCSF’s “Trumpian” plan to cancel their union contracts and cut their pay
With the Regents meeting this week in San Francisco, workers will use public comment periods starting today to speak out against UCSF’s “Integration Plan” that would take about $20 million out of the pockets of its East Bay workers
Workers at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland are heading to San Francisco this week to urge the University of California Board of Regents to stop UCSF Health from cancelling their union contracts, and forcing them into UC unions — a move that would cost workers both their union and about $10,000 per year on average in take-home pay due primarily to increased costs for health and retirement benefits.
Although UCSF’s “Integration Plan” isn’t on the Regent’s agenda, the board exercises significant governance over University of California health services. In addition to demanding action from the Regents, approximately 1,300 Children’s Hospital Oakland workers, members of the National Union of Health Workers (NUHW), are signing petitions for a strike next month.
“It’s flat-out Trumpian for UCSF to unilaterally cancel union contracts, let alone reduce our take-home pay and force us into unions we don’t want to join,” said Stephanie Lum Ho, an office associate at the hospital’s sports medicine clinic. “The Regents include statewide elected officials and appointees of Gov. Newsom; they should not let the University of California violate our rights just like the Trump administration is violating the rights of federal workers.”
WHO/WHAT: Healthcare workers from Children’s Hospital Oakland speaking during the public comment periods of the UC Board of Regents Meetings.
WHEN/WHERE: The Regents meetings will take place starting today, May 13 through Thursday, May 15 at Robertson Auditorium, UCSF-Mission Bay Conference Center, San Francisco campus and can also be livestreamed. Public comment will be allowed during the following sessions:
- Investments Committee, 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 13
- Full Board Meeting, 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 14
- Full Board Meeting, 8:30 a.m. Thursday, May 15
UCSF affiliated with Children’s Hospital Oakland in 2014, running it as a private non-profit entity separate from UCSF Health. That would not change under UCSF’s “Integration Plan,” which would take effect in July.
The plan is not a merger. Unlike St. Francis and St. Mary’s hospitals in San Francisco, which UCSF recently purchased and merged into its health system, Children’s Hospital Oakland would remain separate from UCSF Health under the “Integration Plan.” There would be no changes to the hospital’s ownership structure, funding or license. The only tangible change would be to the employment status of its East Bay workers allowing UCSF to significantly cut their take-home pay and keep that money — approximately $20 million — for itself.
Under the plan, UCSF would effectively terminate its employees at Children’s Hospital Oakland and its satellite clinics across the East Bay and rehire them as direct UCSF employees.
For the hospital’s 1,300 NUHW members – who include mental health therapists, psychologists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, clerical workers, housekeepers, licensed vocational nurses, medical technicians — UCSF would cancel their union contracts and transfer nearly all of them into University of California unions whose contracts require workers to pay thousands of dollars more for their health and retirement benefits. A small number of workers whose jobs aren’t represented by UC unions would lose union representation altogether.
In an independently-conducted vote last month, 98 percent of NUHW members casting ballots stated their preference for remaining in their union. Still, UCSF is refusing to relent. The university has refused to select an arbitrator to hear the union’s grievance over the legality of the “integration plan.” It recently sent workers a letter that they must accept their employment as direct UCSF employees — or retire.
“The University of California is taking a page out of President Trump’s playbook, and our patients are the ones who will suffer most,” said Jackki Patrick, a patient care assistant, who has worked at the hospital for over 30 years. “We’re already struggling to fill critical caregiver jobs, and the staffing shortfall will only get worse if UCSF takes away our union and our hard-earned money.”
NUHW members are able to strike over the move because the contract for many of its members at Children’s Hospital Oakland expired at the end of April. The agreement, which remains in effect even after the expiration date, secured better pay as well as provisions that make it harder for UCSF to subcontract out jobs or shift services from the East Bay to San Francisco.
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The National Union of Healthcare Workers is a member-led movement that represents 19,000 healthcare workers in California and Hawaii, including more than 1,300 workers at UCSF Children’s Hospital Oakland and satellite clinics.
