One year after UCSF initiated a hospital integration plan that forced more than 1,300 NUHW members at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland into other unions, the workers haven’t given up hope of returning to NUHW or given up fighting for their patients and East Bay communities.
On Saturday, June 27, about a dozen workers, who used to be NUHW stewards at Children’s Hospital Oakland before UCSF “integrated” it with its children’s hospital in San Francisco’s Mission Bay District, had a sit-down meeting with Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee.
Lee listened as workers discussed how the integration has resulted in additional services being moved across the Bay to San Francisco, forcing Oakland families to travel farther for care. The reduction in services came as no surprise to workers who held a strike last June opposing the integration plan, which also effectively cancelled their NUHW contracts and forced them into other unions, whose contracts included higher healthcare costs and pension contributions.
A federal judge is considering NUHW’s objections to the “integration,” but Lee stated that she is committed to making sure that funds from the 2020 Measure C sales tax ballot measure are used in the best interest of Oakland kids and the people who serve them at Children’s Hospital.
NUHW members helped pass the Alameda County tax measure six years ago, which generates about $20 million a year for the hospital. However, the measure wasn’t clear about how the money should be distributed, which left NUHW members at Children’s Hospital teaming up with the local unions to have a say in how it’s spent.
“UCSF is not doing what was intended with Measure C dollars,” Griselda Chavez, an infant development specialist at the hospital, told Lee during the meeting. “They took money that came from the pockets of everyday people, money meant for helping children, and spent it on construction.”
Lee was receptive to Chavez and her coworkers, and pledged to talk to UCSF Health Presidnet Nicolas Holmses and county officials to make sure they follow through on a plan ensuring that 5 percent of the proceeds go towards programs that hospital workers identify as major problems, including lack of equipment and lack of staff, which leads to long waitlists for important pediatric services.
“I was happy with the commitment we received from Mayor Lee,” Chavez said. “She listened, and I believe she will follow through, but I’m not optimistic that UCSF will honor any commitment. Over the past year of being under UCSF, I’ve seen them ignore rules and requirements that they don’t like.”
