CHEU Quarterly Roundup: Winter 2021

Glendale Memorial Hospital

We are celebrating several victories at Glendale Memorial! Workers in the Cath Lab undertook a staffing fight to address retention and recruitment. We are pleased to share that the department was able to win an increase to base pay rate and to standby rates. This victory has spread and we are now working to improve staffing in the OR. Wound care employees applied onsite pressure, fought back against management tactics and presented evidence of wrongful flexing. As a result, workers were awarded remedies up to $1,600 to resolve the grievance. We have also been able to continue the overtime incentives of double time for extra shifts worked in key CHEU departments.

Kindred Baldwin Park and Kindred San Gabriel Valley

Respiratory Therapists at Kindred Baldwin Park won a grievance which awards about a dozen therapists backpay going back to January for working extra shifts. This has resulted in increased activism in our campaign for better staffing.

Both Kindred Baldwin Park and Kindred San Gabriel Valley moved a petition to improve recruitment and retention at each location gathering over 200 signatures that were delivered to the CEO. We are so happy that our efforts won a 5% wage increase for EVS and food service workers! We continue our fight for improvements facility wide.

San Gabriel Valley Medical Center

CHEU members organized a vote of no confidence and successfully ousted the HR director after months of struggle. In November we held an informational picket for a fair contract, and we voted to authorize a strike at the hospital. We have scheduled our strike for January 13th, 2022, where we will join thousands of other healthcare workers and nurses who are members of CHEU, CNA and NNU in a nationwide day of action.

Shasta

CHEU members have made some strides in our efforts to improve staffing, we have forced the hospital to post open and new positions which acknowledges that we need improved staffing to keep our community safe. We are putting everything in motion for our upcoming contract campaign with additional stewards and activists ready to fight to improve staffing and improve conditions to meet area standards.

Palomar Health

Month after month, Palomar Health has attempted to restructure, silence and make work harder for the members of CHEU.  We have held steady and demanded us and our patients are safe!  We fought for life saving PPE and won, we forced Palomar Health to conform keeping supplies on hand. We still struggle with critically short staffing at the bedside and fight every day to keep our patients safe!

Much of 2021 has been spent in bargaining for a contract that is fair and will increase recruitment and retention and are fighting back attempts to weaken our contract and our union.  We continue to fight to ensure safe staffing and worker’s rights proposals are being heard and addressed by the administration. Together with our RN colleagues, we held informational pickets and are prepared to do so again if needed. Through our efforts, we continue to stop Palomar Health from contracting out services.

Alta Bates Summit

Over the past year CHEU and CNA members at Alta Bates Summit have been fighting for life saving PPE and safe staffing resulting in some improvements. Currently we are at the bargaining table alongside our CNA colleagues at a common table that includes 17 total Sutter contracts as we work together to improve working conditions and patient care. We are fighting for health and safety measures that protect our patients, to address racism and discrimination and for acknowledgement and action to support the fact that healthcare is a human right.

CHO

Both labor and community have banded together to demand that UCSF-CHO makes the purchase a priority, as the absence of an MRI machine pushes patients to receive care in San Francisco. Despite CHO choosing not to prioritize patient safety; nurses and techs continue to engage in collective action with the Keep Care in Oakland campaign to protect CHO as a full service hospital serving the East bay communities.

We also welcome the newest CHEU leader to step up as a shop steward, Jenny Phong. Welcome Jenny!

Methodist Hospital of Southern California

At Arcadia Methodist, we have been struggling with short staffing and bargaining our first contract. We’ve been in bargaining a little over a year now, with an aggressive, unappreciative hospital administration, we always stand together to show support and are happy to share some of our solidarity photos from our recent newsletter. Arcadia Methodist members deserve a fair wage and safe working conditions for themselves and their patients! CHEU Bargaining team and members ROCK and we continue to fight!