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Before the break of dawn on October 28, NUHW members were walking picket lines and chanting outside one of the most profitable hospitals in Orange County.
The workers, who include nursing assistants, housekeepers, phlebotomists, and pharmacy technicians, have been in contract negotiations since June, and were informing community members how the hospital’s below-market wages risked worsening understaffing at the hospital, which is among a select few in the county accredited to receive emergency heart attack patients.
“We want to provide the best services for every patient, and we can’t do that when we’re understaffed and struggling to keep good workers here,” said Emmanuel Richard, a phlebotomist. “Everything we’re seeking in negotiations would help make West Anaheim a better hospital to give and receive care.”
The picket was covered by the Orange County Register and the Fullerton Observer.
West Anaheim Medical Center is a 219-bed hospital owned by Prem Reddy’s Prime Healthcare, a Southern California-based for-profit company that operates 55 hospitals and 360 outpatient facilities in 14 states. The company paid $103.75 million in federal fines for false billing between 2018 and 2021.
Prime reported a $24 million net profit last year from operating West Anaheim Medical Center. West Anaheim’s 13 percent profit margin was among the highest of Orange County hospitals. Still, Prime is refusing to invest in its workforce or the care they provide, leaving patients with fewer caregivers than nearby hospitals.
- Low Pay: The median hourly wage for nursing assistants at West Anaheim is $23 an hour; for EMTs, the median hourly wage is $24.28; and for pharmacy techs, the median hourly wage is $25.99 — none of which amounts to a living wage in Orange County for a family with two working parents and one child, based on the MIT Living Wage Calculator. In a recent union survey, 72 percent of respondents reported spending at least half their income on housing.
- Understaffing: Key staffing metrics show that West Anaheim operates with fewer staff than the average hospital in Orange County. One metric, “Full-Time-Equivalent Employees per Adjusted Occupied Bed,” shows that patients at West Anaheim get 4.13 hours of staff time versus a 4.65 average among all hospitals in Orange County.
- Low staffing harms patients: Between 2023 and 2026, 65 incidents at West Anaheim were reported to regulatory agencies, including violations of psychiatric staffing ratios and inadequate patient monitoring. The county average for that time period was 40 incidents.
“In contract negotiations, West Anaheim is insisting on annual cost-of-living raises that would average out to less than 3 percent per year, leaving workers further behind as prices continue to rise.”
“There’s no excuse for a hospital that makes so much money to lowball us in contract negotiations when we’re already understaffed and losing good coworkers,” said Letedata McKnight, a monitor tech.. “We’re underpaid and understaffed, and we’re determined to change that.”
