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NUHW member Willie Williams, an orthopedic technician at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, was quoted in a East Bay Times story after NUHW members ended their strike over UCSF’s illegal “integration” that resulted in them being moved into other unions with less take-home pay. “Our strike is over, but our fight is still going on,” Williams said. “We’re proud that we have taken this stand for each other and for the care that we provide East Bay kids. A federal judge recently ruled the dispute for one subset of workers to go to arbitration, and other legal challenges remain ongoing.
NUHW members Tim Johnson, a social worker at Providence Memorial Hospice, hospice worker Camille Brody, hospice nurse Steve Einstein, grief counselor Christopher Bowers, Petaluma night nurse Kristina Nauheimer, and Petaluma hospice nurse Sandra Hearst were quoted in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and the Petaluma Argus Courier about more than 100 nurses, social workers, home health aides, chaplains, and other hospice workers, holding a two-day strike on July 2 and 3 at Hospice of Petaluma and Memorial Hospice in Santa Rosa. The action was their first strike and comes as the hospice workers have been negotiating their first contract for two years with Providence. Providence has not adequately bargained — a concern compounded by the system’s planned transition of home-based care services to Compassus through a joint venture. NorCal Public Media, KSRO and Becker’s Hospital Review also published similar stories.
Brittany Aanestad, Catherine Armstrong, and Jackie Bedell, all nurses who are members of the NUHW-affiliated Petaluma Staff Nurse Partnership, were featured in a Press Democrat story about the one-day picket they organized July 16 at Petaluma Valley Hospital to protest excessive, ongoing cuts to their hours, which violate their contract.
AI Invest covered NUHW’s questioning of Kaiser Permanente’s use of unlicensed staff to triage mental health patients via algorithmic assessments, violating California law. The practice has caused delayed care and misdiagnoses, including a suicide attempt where a patient was hospitalized after a week-long wait for urgent care. This is an ongoing issue with Kaiser, which already faced a $50 million fine in 2023 for similar behavioral health service failures. NUHW Researcher Fred Seavey was interviewed by KQED, which has also reported on the complaint.
NUHW President Emeritus Sal Rosselli was quoted in an Oaklandside story about the passing of civil rights attorney Dan Siegel, who was a prominent leader in the establishment of People’s Park in Berkeley. One of Dan’s many pro bono legal fights was on behalf of NUHW leaders against SEIU. “Dan turned over his whole firm to this David and Goliath fight,” Sal told Oaklandside. “We didn’t pay a dime. The picture of Dan standing up in court to these lawyers was extraordinary.”
California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would ease some of the nation’s strictest pharmacy staffing limits. The bill would allow pharmacists to supervise up to three pharmacy technicians, up from the current limit of one. According to Becker’s Hospital Review, AB 1503 includes major changes to pharmacists’ scope of practice, allowing them to independently furnish more medications and adjust drug regimens for chronic conditions.
At least seven states and the District of Columbia have offered coverage for immigrants since 2020. But amid rising budget deficits, the Associated Press reported that three of them have done an about-face, ending or limiting coverage for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who aren’t in the U.S. legally in California, Illinois, and Minnesota. In Illinois, undocumented immigrants ages 42-64 have lost their health care to save an estimated $404 million. All adult immigrants in Minnesota no longer have access to the state program, saving nearly $57 million. In California, no one will automatically lose coverage, but new enrollments for adults will stop in 2026 to save more than $3 billion over several years.
A U.S. District Court judge in Texas vacated a Biden-era rule finalized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would have excluded medical bills from credit reports. Two trade groups sued, claiming the CFPB overstepped its authority. The court determined the rule exceeded the agency’s authority under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The CFPB had estimated the rule would remove $49 billion in medical bills from 15 million Americans’ credit reports.
