Hundreds of union workers strike at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland

Hundreds of health care workers at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland are now on strike indefinitely, opposing what they say is a serious pay cut that would hurt employees and also patients.

The strike comes as the University of California moves to transition workers from employment by the hospital to the UC system. Striking members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, the union that represents more than 1,000 therapists, social workers and other employees at the hospital and its clinics, say that switch will result in a loss of seniority and less take-home pay for workers, and that experienced employees could leave.

UCSF Health acknowledges the financial hit some workers would take but said the change, set to occur by July 6, will help unify its workforce and “deliver even better care” across the Bay Area. The health system, which took over Children’s Hospital Oakland — a long-time, highly regarded safety net hospital for the East Bay and beyond — in 2014, operates another children’s hospital in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco.

“Employees at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland are transitioning to UC employment and joining the same public-sector union that represent their colleagues,” UCSF Health said in a statement. “Some take-home pay may change because today, many employees pay nothing toward their health insurance or retirement.”

On Wednesday, hundreds of people gathered in front of the hospital at the corner of 52nd Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, the air punctuated by loud honking from passing cars and trucks and tables on the sidewalk laden with lunch for striking workers.

Those in attendance included people on strike, colleagues there in solidarity and other supporters wearing red union shirts, holding signs, marching and dancing.

Ruth Crowe, a social worker in the neonatal intensive care unit, smiled in the sea of red shirts as she greeted her current and former coworkers on the sidewalk outside her workplace.

But her smile quickly disappeared when asked what is at stake.

“They’re trying to turn Oakland into a ghost hospital, where the license remains, but there are no employees,” she said, of UCSF Health’s rapidly approaching timeline to re-hire current employees of the private nonprofit hospital as UCSF employees, the most recent move in the decade-long “integration” of Oakland’s children’s hospital into UCSF Health.

Crowe is not technically on strike because her unit’s contract has not yet expired, but she chose not to cross the picket line on Wednesday and to join her fellow union workers outside.

She has worked at the hospital for 23 years, and says if the strike and a lawsuit by the union to try to stop the change fails, she is looking at taking a big cut in her take-home pay. But she and others are also concerned about UCSF’s commitment to serving the East Bay, and the experience of patients, many of whom already travel long distances to Oakland. Workers worry more services will move from Oakland to San Francisco, leaving low-income families especially vulnerable.

“Our patients take numerous buses just to get here,” said Heather Stenger, a pediatric audiologist who said her department’s caseload is so full the next open appointment is in January.

“What we’ve seen during this affiliation that we’ve had is that UCSF has taken more and more control, Children’s Hospital Oakland has lost more autonomy, and we’ve seen that in how services are provided,” Crowe said.

On Wednesday, some patient visits were rescheduled or converted to telehealth appointments, but emergency services remained open.

“We have taken steps to ensure that our young patients still have access to important critical care services, including the emergency department and operating rooms,” UCSF said.

Picketers hope the strike and lawsuit will prompt the health system to reconsider the transition of employees to UCSF and its affiliated unions.

“We have tried in good faith to negotiate with UCSF Health,” said Rosie Brooks, a NUHW member on strike. “They flat out refused to pick an arbitrator.”

Brooks has worked at the hospital as a telecommunications operator for nearly 26 years. Working at the hospital “was a dream” she said, since she moved to Oakland as a child and was herself a patient at the hospital. Now she says she might be taking a $10,000 cut in her take-home pay if the transition goes through.

“What’s going to happen? We are going to have to seek other employment, possibly take on a second or third job,” Brooks said.

It’s unclear how long the strike will last.