It took an informational picket, determination, and ultimately mediation, but workers at Hazel Hawkins Hospital in Hollister, California, have regained more of the benefits the facility took away from them when it illegally declared bankruptcy in 2023.
Nine months after they began bargaining for a new contract, the nearly 400 workers, including nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, and medical technicians, have overwhelmingly ratified a new four-year agreement that will boost salaries by an average of 14 percent with retroactive pay.
Reaching an agreement wasn’t easy. Despite posting a healthy $14 million profit in 2024, the hospital offered minuscule raises that wouldn’t have covered the rapidly increasing cost of living in the area.
Workers made their demands public, staging their first informational picket last October, warning the residents of San Benito County that Hazel Hawkins was losing experienced, community-minded healthcare workers because they couldn’t afford to stay.
“It helped a lot,” Valerie Aquinaldo, a respiratory therapist, said of the picket. “It showed solidarity, that we were serious and we were going to keep moving forward with whatever was necessary to get what we wanted.”
Workers have been determined to restore some of what they lost when the public district hospital’s Board of Directors cut their health plans, retirement benefits, and vacation time, citing a bankruptcy filing that a federal judge later overturned. A contract agreement in 2024 included an immediate 12 percent raise as well as the restoration of some health and retirement benefits.
Negotiations on a new contract this year were aided by a federal mediator, who helped broker an agreement that included:
- Winning nearly a year of retroactive pay.
- Keeping healthcare premiums at their current levels.
- Maintaining current retirement benefits with retroactive employer contributions for new workers.
- Restoring paid time off (4 additional days for those with 1-5 years of service, 6 additional days for workers with over 5 years of service).
- Incorporating workers who recently joined NUHW into the new contract — business office workers, ER techs, case management assistants, lab clerks, and security guards.
“We fought hard and we got the best that we could get,” Aquinaldo said. “I think that we did our best for our coworkers. People seem happy. They’re happy that we got our PTO (paid time off) days back, and we got the raises.
“It wasn’t everything that we wanted, but I think we did pretty good.”
