On July 6, more than 4,000 members of Service Employees International Union Local 250 walked off the job for 24 hours to protest patient care and staffing issues. Union officials say they want workers to have greater say about hospital staffing levels. Administrators responded to the one-day strike by transferring patients, canceling elective surgeries, and in some cases, calling in temporary workers. The one-day strike coincided with ongoing labor disputes at other Bay Area hospitals. More than 1,700 nurses from Stanford University's two hospitals have been on strike since June 7.
Salaries remain the sticking point in that labor action.
In yet another dispute, this one at Highland Hospital in Oakland, five of the eight anesthesiologists on staff recently rejected contracts offered by the hospital, saying their workers' rights would have been affected. Noah Griffin, the anesthesiologists' spokesman, says the doctors already have found jobs elsewhere. Three anesthesiologists have been brought in temporarily, until the hospital can hire permanent replacements. The one-day strike disrupted services at 10 hospitals in Northern California, nine of them in the Bay Area. Roselli says the corporations running the hospitals have been earning millions of dollars in profits on the backs of employees.