Federal judge on Friday declined union’s motion for an injunction stopping UCSF’s “integration plan” that will allow UCSF to cancel union contracts and make workers at the Oakland hospital direct UCSF employees
OAKLAND — Workers at Children’s Hospital Oakland have decided to end their strike at 6 a.m. Monday, June 30, after a federal judge denied their request for an injunction that would have stopped UCSF Health from proceeding with its “integration plan,” which includes canceling union contracts and making workers at the Oakland Hospital direct UCSF employees. The picket line scheduled for Sunday, June 29, has been canceled.
Although the strike is ending, the 1,300 Children’s Hospital Oakland workers represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers will continue their legal fight to try to ultimately reverse UCSF Health’s “integration plan” that is set to take effect July 6.
The union is proceeding with a motion seeking to compel arbitration over whether the integration violates its contracts with the hospital. That hearing is scheduled for July 17 before U.S. Chief District Court Judge Richard Seeborg. On Friday, Judge Seeborg issued an 11-page ruling denying the union’s motion seeking a temporary injunction stopping the integration. The union is also pursuing injunctive relief through the National Labor Relations Board.
With no legal recourse to stop the integration from happening, member leaders of the union met on the picket line Saturday with colleagues and decided to call off the strike effective Monday but proceed with ongoing legal options to try to reverse the “integration.”
“Our strike is over, but our fight is still going on,” said Willie Williams, an orthopedic technician at the hospital. “We’re proud that we have taken this stand for each other and for the care that we provide East Bay kids. We know that what UCSF is proposing will push out long-tenured caregivers, and we’re still determined to reverse it.”
Background on the integration
UCSF Health’s “integration plan” would effectively require Children’s Hospital Oakland to terminate employees at the hospital and satellite clinics and rehire them as direct UCSF employees to do the same work at the same facilities for significantly less take-home pay.
Most employees at Children’s Hospital Oakland would be transferred into UC unions whose contracts leave workers with less money primarily because they are required to pay thousands of dollars more toward their health and retirement benefits. Dozens of workers, whose jobs are not represented by UC unions, would lose union representation altogether.
The transition threatens to further reduce services at the Oakland hospital as workers consider leaving or retiring rather than starting over as UCSF employees with less take-home pay, no seniority, and the potential of being assigned to work at a UCSF hospital in San Francisco.
Integration plan is not a merger
Children’s Hospital Oakland affiliated with UCSF Health in 2014, with the hospital remaining a private nonprofit separate from the university. UCSF’s “integration plan” is not a merger. The hospital, where the vast majority of patients qualify for Medi-Cal, would retain its ownership structure, license, and private nonprofit status, which allows it to collect substantial federal funding as a Federally Qualified Health Center.
However, by canceling union contracts and forcing workers into UC unions, UCSF would effectively be transferring about $20 million out of the pockets of its East Bay workforce into its own coffers.
Workers who authorized the strike included NUHW-represented nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, housekeepers, clerical workers, and medical technicians whose contracts expired in April, but remain in effect. NUHW-represented professional workers at the hospital, who include mental health therapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists, were unable to authorize a strike because their contract doesn’t expire until September, but many had chosen to individually honor the picket line.
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The National Union of Healthcare Workers is a member-led movement that represents 19,000 healthcare workers in California and Hawaii, including 1,300 workers at UCSF Children’s Hospital Oakland and satellite clinics.
