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University of California Workers Rally for Justice, Better Patient Care |
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More than 20,000 patient care and service workers at the University of California (UC) medical centers took their fight for fair pay to UC campuses and medical centers across California today. In rallies and protests, they sent a message to UC executives that they want a fair contract that helps patients, students and families.
Says Lakesha Harrison, president of AFSCME Local 3299, which represents the workers:
We just want equal pay for equal work. UC is losing quality staff that we train to those other institutions that pay 25 percent higher (wages), and many of us are living in poverty. UC executives need to prioritize providing enough to protect quality patient care and support our families.
Hundreds of union members and community activists in Washington, D.C., showed their solidarity with the UC workers by forming a picket line at UC’s Washington Center. UC students delivered a letter to the center director urging him to talk with the university regents and the new UC president to resolve this matter.
It is becoming more difficult to care for patients at the UC medical centers, Margaret Konjevod, a senior psychiatric nurse at UCLA’s Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, told the crowd in Washington:
I have been working at UC for 26 years and I am proud to work for the UC. Over the years it has gotten more difficult for patient care workers to provide the care patients deserve. Patient care workers have been expressing concerns to UC executives about the problems of recruiting and retaining staff because UC’s pay and benefits are behind other hospitals. Without enough staff, management uses too many temp workers, who have less experience. I worry that this could be dangerous for patients and could hurt quality patient care.
For 10 months, workers have been trying to negotiate a fair contract. Although medical center executives claim the workers are essential to the operations, they have failed to make any serious proposals to pay the workers a decent wage.
The workers are seeking wages comparable to those paid for similar work outside the UC system. In addition, the workers want UC to create a step-increase system for wages, as well as the right to bargain over health care and to have a voice in the pension system.
Monica Martinez, who works at the UCLA Medical Center, told the rally in the nation’s capital that it’s frustrating to work hard and still not be able to make ends meet.
Ever since I’ve worked at UC, I’ve had to have a second job. It’s hard working 12-hour shifts, six and seven days a week. My four teenage kids and I share a two-bedroom apartment. I keep hoping one of these days we will be able to get a three-bedroom, but every time I make headway the rents go up, too, and it is always just out of my reach. It’s frustrating that even though I am working hard— even though I have two jobs—I am barely making it.
Clearly, the UC medical centers can afford to pay a fair wage. In 2006, the centers earned a net income of $371 million. At the same time the university is refusing to pay workers a fair wage, it has been boosting the pay of its highest executives. According to a Local 3299 fact sheet, the salaries of medical center chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief nursing officers (CNOs) were increased by up to 39 percent in the fall. The CEOs and CNOs also received bonuses of up to $83,000—a one-time payment in addition to any salary increase.
The workers had planned a two-day strike to begin today, but postponed it and complied with a state Public Employment Relations Board order to return to the bargaining table last week.
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