OAKLAND, Calif. — Some 1,300 members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers at University of California San Francisco-run Benioff Children’s Hospital went out on strike June 18 against bosses’ moves to bust their union. The NUHW represents clinic workers, therapists, social workers and office staff. Nurses at the hospital, members of the California Nurses Association, and workers in the Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union, walked out on a five-day solidarity strike the same day.
UCSF took over the hospital more than a decade ago. Now it’s moving to cancel union contracts and slash pay. National Union of Healthcare Workers members would be chopped up into three different unions. Dozens will become “at-will” employees and lose union representation all together.
“They want to force us to become employees of UCSF, not the hospital. This will mean take-home pay will be at least 15% less,” said Willie Williams, an orthopedic technician and a union member for 15 years. “Also we’ll have to start paying for the pension plan and medical insurance, which we pay nothing for now.”
“UCSF is implementing forced retirements and staffing cuts,” office associate Stephanie Lum Ho told the Militant. She subscribed to the paper and bought two books: The Low Point of Labor Resistance Is Behind Us: The Socialist Workers Party Looks Forward by SWP leaders Jack Barnes, Mary-Alice Waters and Steve Clark; and Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Barnes.
Cars passing the well-attended picket line June 20 honked in support as pickets waved placards reading, “Same work for less take-home pay? NO WAY!” while doing a spirited line dance to music from nearby speakers.
Strikers invite people to join their picket lines at 747 52nd St. in Oakland. They picket weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and weekends from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. A strike fund to has been established. To contribute, go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-nuhw-members-at-childrens-hospital-oakland.