Caregivers at Fountain Valley Regional authorize strike as Tenet reports revenue growth
Christina Rodriguez at a May 6 rally outside Fountain Valley Regional Hospital & Medical Center. NUHW employees voted Wednesday to authorize a strike ahead of upcoming contract talks.
(File Photo)
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Unionized workers with Tenet Healthcare including hundreds of respiratory therapists, nursing assistants, technicians and emergency and operating room staff at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital & Medical Center have authorized a strike that could begin as early as next month.
Voting results were released Wednesday by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, the same day Tenet Healthcare Corp. announced to shareholders the company had earned a second-quarter net income of $257 million, including $24 million in COVID-19 stimulus grants.
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Employees rallied outside Fountain Valley Regional Hospital & Medical Center Thursday to demand better wages and benefits for essential workers who fed, cleaned up after and sat with COVID-19 patients during the pandemic but say they can barely afford their own healthcare.
More than 100 people turned out at the Fountain Valley facility managed by Tenet Healthcare to draw attention to the fact that, while nurses were granted hazard pay and executives received COVID-19 bonuses, many employees working in high-risk scenarios for much lower salaries received no such extra compensation.
“I was working in the ICU every day,” said Eunice Zamorano, an environmental services (EVS) employee who cleaned rooms where coronavirus patients had been treated, with only gloves and a surgical mask for protection. “It was a very scary time. [But] we didn’t get an extra pay due to COVID.”
Fountain Valley Regional Hospital & Medical Center respiratory therapists whose skills and training place them squarely in the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic are describing increasingly untenable work conditions as the facility struggles against its capacity to admit and treat COVID-19 patients.
Concerned about urgent safety issues that have so far gone unaddressed as the patient count continues to rise, employees reached out to representatives from the National Union of Healthcare Workers to intervene on their behalf.
“We had a call with therapists over the weekend, who said we need to sound the alarm,” said Barbara Lewis, NUHW’s Southern California hospital division director. “Our members see how bad it is right now. There needs to be a breakthrough because this is not sustainable.”
Fountain Valley Regional Hospital & Medical Center respiratory therapists whose skills and training place them squarely in the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic are describing increasingly untenable work conditions as the facility struggles against its capacity to admit and treat COVID-19 patients.
Concerned about urgent safety issues that have so far gone unaddressed as the patient census continues to rise, employees reached out to representatives from the National Union of Healthcare Workers to intervene on their behalf.
“We had a call with therapists over the weekend, who said we need to sound the alarm,” said Barbara Lewis, NUHW’s Southern California hospital division director. “Our members see how bad it is right now. There needs to be a breakthrough because this is not sustainable.”