Frontline Workers Avoid Strike, Ratify New Contract With Sutter Health

Copyright Newsweek

Sutter Health reached an agreement with frontline employees Monday, avoiding a planned workers' strike. Why It Matters Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) said this agreement averted an authorized strike at eight Sutter Health facilities in nine cities, including Oakland, Santa Rosa, Roseville, Berkeley, Lakeport, Vallejo, Antioch, Castro Valley and San Francisco. What To Know More than 4,700 frontline workers across eight Sutter Health facilities in Northern California voted to approve the new contract that has been under negotiation since July. The employee strike was set to take place from October 20 to October 24, but the demonstration was avoided after the parties reached a tentative agreement on October 11. "In ratifying this contract, we are hopeful that Sutter Health hospitals will be able to attract and retain more good healthcare workers in the coming years, alleviating some of the short-staffing we have struggled with recently," the union said in a statement to Newsweek. "Frontline caregivers will continue to work with management to make sure we provide the best possible care for Sutter patients." SEIU-UHW is a health care union with more than 120,000 health care workers, patients, advocates and health care consumers across California. It represents many types of workers across Sutter Health, including nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, licensed vocational nurses, X-ray technicians and environmental and food services workers. Sutter Health said in a statement Wednesday that it was pleased to reach the agreement that supports its frontline employees while maintaining their shared focus on patient care and safety. “As Sutter Health continues to achieve high safety scores, expand access to care, add new services and bring more physicians to the communities we serve, we’ll continue investing in and supporting the teams who make that care possible,” the health system said. The new agreement, which was ratified by a margin of 98 percent, addresses staffing and working conditions issues by ensuring fair pay and benefits for frontline health care workers and “allowing them to continue serving patients without disruption,” the union said in a statement. The contract protects health care and retirement benefits and includes a 14 percent across-the-board raise for frontline workers. According to Sutter Health, full-time SIEU-UHW employees make an average of $75,000 a year and have seen up to 23 percent in total pay increases over the past four years. “This new contract shows that when we stand united, we can win improvements that protect both healthcare workers and our patients,” Dinora Garcia, a dietary clerk from Sutter Lakeside Hospital, said in a statement to Newsweek. “Reaching this contract agreement wasn’t easy, but we stood together to advocate for worker and patient safety, improved staffing levels, and fair wages and benefits that reflect the vital work we do daily.” The planned strike was set to take place last week after hospital staff said budget cuts and understaffing forced them to take on multiple roles at once, "jeopardizing patient care and burning out the staff who remain." Carolina Contreras, an ER technician who has worked at Anaheim Global Medical Center, said in a statement that emergency room staff are expected to do many jobs including vitals, EKGs, admissions, transfers and even ordering supplies, because there aren’t enough people. "We don’t have enough sitters to safely monitor patients in crisis, and we’ve seen preventable tragedies because of it," she said in a statement. "It’s not safe for patients, and it’s not fair to the people providing their care.” According to Sutter Health, staffing is continuously monitored and adjusted to meet patient needs, in accordance with strict patient safety protocols. The health system also said it offers "clear and accessible channels for staff to bring any concerns directly to leadership so they can be addressed." Sutter Health said it recognizes that burnout is a real issue and provides free, confidential counseling with licensed providers, mental and behavioral health benefits through our health plan and access to a wide variety of mental health support tools and resources.