After failing to accomplish their goals in their previous contract campaign, workers at Providence Cedars Sinai Tarzana Medical Center built unprecedented unity to win bigger raises and other gains this year.
Several years before prosecutors filed a lawsuit against Providence for sending debt collectors after patients who qualified for free care, NUHW members were blowing the whistle on its charity care violations in California.
At its annual Architects of Justice Awards banquet this month, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice honored the approximately 850 nurses and professional workers at the Tenet hospital who joined NUHW last year and won a contract with strong raises and patient protections.
The three-year agreement preserves pensions and includes guaranteed raises without which Kaiser stood to lose even more therapists, resulting in even longer appointment wait times for patients.
With Providence (St. Joseph Health) seeking to close the birthing center at Petaluma Valley Hospital in violation of its purchase agreement, caregivers are joining forces with community leaders to save the facility.
Sutter halted merit raises after workers voted to join NUHW, but workers stayed united, fought back and settled a complaint requiring that Sutter restore the raises with interest.
