Registered nurses and healthcare workers who are part of Sutter Care at Home’s Sacramento Hospice held strong despite an intense anti-union campaign and voted to join NUHW on January 17.
Sutter pleaded with workers to give them a year to improve conditions and insisted that forming a union would make things worse, but the 58 caregivers were determined to form a union to win adequate staffing, reasonable workloads, as well as better pay and retirement benefits.
The healthcare workers covered in the new unit include medical social workers, bereavement counselors, children’s art group counselors, nurses and nurse practitioners, as well as chaplains, home health aides and hospice aides.
“I’m excited we joined the union because we will have a collective voice for any concerns, including issues around staffing,” said Shaneel Raj, a hospice aid who has worked at Sutter for eight years. “Better staffing will mean better care for our patients!”
The workers are joining an increasing number of Sutter colleagues who have joined NUHW in the past years, including those from Alameda Hospice, San Mateo Hospice, Concord Home Health, San Leandro Home Health, San Francisco Home Health, and Santa Cruz Home Health.
Medical Social Worker Keri Miller, who has been with the hospice for seven years, echoed those sentiments.
“I am hopeful to be able to lower our caseloads,” she said. “That will mean more time for patients and secure better wages and pension benefits so that we can retain staff,” Miller noted.
