Workers at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland agreed to end their strike on Monday at 6 p.m., according to the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
On Friday, a federal judge declined the union’s motion for an injunction to stop the University of California, San Francisco’s “integration plan” that will allow the school to cancel union contracts and make workers at the Oakland hospital UCSF employees, the union said.
A picket line originally scheduled for Sunday was cancelled.
By integrating NUHW into the UCSF Health workforce, the administration is canceling union contracts and cutting take-home pay for approximately 2,500 East Bay workers, including NUHW workers, members of the California Nurses Association and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 39.
“Although the strike is ending, the 1,300 Children’s Hospital Oakland workers represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers will continue their legal fight to try and ultimately reverse UCSF Health’s ‘integration plan’ that is set to take effect July 6,” said the union in a statement released Sunday.
A hearing is scheduled on July 17 in district court to try and compel arbitration over whether the integration violates its contracts with the hospital, according to the union.
The union alleges that UCSF’s integration plan would mean Children’s Hospital Oakland would terminate its employees at the hospital and satellite clinics and then rehire them as UCSF employees at “significantly” less take-home pay, mainly due to having to pay more for health and retirement benefits. NUHW leaders say their members would lose about $10,000 in take-home pay, as well as their seniority, because of the plan.
Hospital officials acknowledge that some workers might see a drop in take-home pay, since they currently pay nothing toward health insurance or retirement, but “will gain access to a far more valuable pension and comprehensive, long-term benefits.”
The workers have been on strike since June 18.
The two separate organizations — UCSF and Children’s Hospital Oakland– run the hospital system together and say that by “unifying the workforce” they will be able to improve long-term growth prospects and strengthen their ability to provide care.
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