Wednesday’s picket comes one year after nearly 400 workers formed a union and one month after USC shuttered the hospital’s birthing center
Glendale, Calif – Nearly 400 healthcare workers on Wednesday will picket USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, a 158-bed facility that USC purchased a decade ago only to understaff medical units and slash services, including the hospital’s birthing center and neo-natal intensive care unit that were shuttered just last month.
“We’re facing a short-staffing crisis, and USC’s answer has been to make us treat more patients while cutting services,” said Ricardo Ramirez De La Rosa, a nursing assistant at the hospital. “The demands being placed on us as caregivers are not sustainable, and the university’s stance in contract bargaining would only make things worse.”
WHAT: An informational picket by nearly 400 healthcare workers holding signs and walking picket lines.
WHERE: USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, 1812 Verdugo Blvd., Glendale
WHEN: 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 11. A rally with elected leaders is scheduled for 12 p.m.
When USC bought Verdugo Hills Hospital in 2013, it pledged to provide “greater access to world-class specialized care” and invest $30 million into the Glendale facility. In recent years, however, understaffing has grown worse. Nursing assistants who previously cared for 8 to 10 patients per shift now must care for up to 14 patients. USC opted to close the hospital’s birthing center in November shortly after its 10-year requirement that it stay open as a condition of purchasing the hospital had expired.
In response to worsening conditions, nearly 400 licensed vocational nurses, nursing assistants, medical technicians and respiratory therapists joined the National Union of Healthcare Workers last December demanding safe staffing levels, fair pay and the same benefits and job protections that workers at other Keck Medicine of USC hospitals already receive.
After eight months of contract negotiations, however, the university has rejected union proposals to boost staffing levels and is offering wage increases that wouldn’t keep up with inflation rates or prevent more workers from leaving.
“USC values its profits at Verdugo Hills more than it values its workers and our patients,” said Noemi Galvan, an imaging technician at the hospital. “We’re committed to providing the highest level of care to our community, and we’re going to keep putting pressure on USC to make sure we have the resources to do that and our patients can still get the services they need.”
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The National Union of Healthcare Workers is a member-led movement that represents 19,000 healthcare workers in California and Hawai’i, including more than 4,700 Kaiser mental health professionals.
