Jose Alvarez feels strongly loyal to California Pacific Medical Center.
It’s where he’s worked for the past 19 years as a housekeeping aide and where he also met his wife, Stephanie Bides, the mother of their two young children.
That’s why he feels responsible for speaking up and helping improve conditions there for himself, his wife, their coworkers and the patients they serve.
He’s doing just that as a member of the NUHW bargaining team negotiating a new union contract with the San Francisco hospital.
“It feels good to give your opinion and be able to directly tell the people from the company what is wrong in the hospital,” he said.
For him, the most pressing issue is short-staffing.
He works at the Van Ness campus, a new hospital with large, private patient rooms. “But sadly, we don’t have enough workers to keep it as clean as it should be, and as the patients deserve,” Alvarez said.
“We’re short-staffed in every shift, and some days, up to 10 areas are not covered. Because of the lack of workers, sometimes we only go and pick up the trash in those areas, but you don’t clean them as they should be,” he added.
Even worse, some days they don’t have time or staff to clean the patients’ rooms properly.
The problem he’s come to find out is that Sutter doesn’t want to hire more workers, even though they have enough money to do so. Sutter Health reported a $1.9 billion profit last year and is investing billions more into its new partnership with Allina Health in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
“This makes me sad because we’re here for the patients. They are sick and deserve to recover in a clean environment. It’s the same thing we would ask if we were in their shoes,” said Alvarez, who on Saturday, April 11, braved the rain and wind with hundreds of other workers at an informational picket against Sutter in front of the California Pacific Medical Center.
This was the first time Alvarez came out to support such an action, and — though somewhat nervous at first — he soon found his stride and joined the chants.
“It was exciting to be there with everyone and to let the company know they have to do better,” said Alvarez, who finds it rewarding to get more involved in the union and to speak up for those who may be afraid to do so.
“There are coworkers who maybe don’t know how to express themselves or how to talk with their supervisors because they fear getting into trouble,” he said. “But I know that when they (the supervisors or the company) are in the wrong, I have the right to speak.”
And that’s exactly what he plans to be doing as the workers continue negotiating their next union contract.
