SEIU: Healthcare Workers to Strike at For-Profit Healthcare Provider – KPC Health – Over Unfair Labor Practices, Short-Staffing

  • September 22, 2022
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  • SEIU: Healthcare Workers to Strike at For-Profit Healthcare Provider – KPC Health – Over Unfair Labor Practices, Short-Staffing

ANAHEIM, Calif, Sept. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ANAHEIM, Calif.  – Citing concerns over a series of unfair labor practices as well as employee and patient safety concerns, short-staffing, and low wages, healthcare workers at six KPC Health Inc. facilities will walk off the job and onto an Unfair Labor Practice strike line at 6 a.m. on Monday, September 26th.

Employees at KPC Health Inc. facilities say conditions are dire for caregivers and patients inside their facility as management ignores concerns about understaffing and working conditions. Workers are worried about patient and staff safety and say they’ve been pushed to the limit by their employer.

“We voted to strike because we want to put a stop to KPC’s unfair labor practices and because we care about patient safety. We have respiratory therapists who sometimes have to care for up to 40 patients, 17 of which are on ventilators,” said Mychelle Ramey, a Respiratory Therapist at South Coast Global Medical Center. “Our patients and community deserve better. We are exhausted and overwhelmed, and we feel like management is ignoring our concerns. KPC needs to invest more into the caregivers who have kept this community alive and ensure that the hospital has proper staffing that is safe for employees and patients.”

The strike vote applies to a variety of job classes across six facilities, including respiratory therapists, licensed vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants, radiology technologists, food service workers, operating room and emergency room technicians, unit secretaries, transporters, and admitting clerks.

KPC Health Inc. is a for-profit, nationwide healthcare chain. More than 1,400 KPC Health Inc. employees are members of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), and their contract with the hospital expired July 13, 2022. 

WHAT: Healthcare workers wearing their uniforms will distribute leaflets to passersby, hold signs, and chant in protest of KPC Health Inc.’s understaffing, unsustainable turnover, sub-standard wages, and unfair labor practices.

WHEN:  MONDAY, September 26, 6 a.m.   

WHERE:

Victor Valley Global Medical Center, 15248 11th St, Victorville, CA

Anaheim Global Medical Center, 1025 S Anaheim Blvd, Anaheim, CA

Chapman Global Medical Center, 2601 E Chapman Ave, Orange, CA

South Coast Global Medical Center, 2701 S Bristol St, Santa Ana, CA

Hemet Global Medical Center, 1117 E Devonshire Ave, Hemet, CA

Menifee Valley Medical Center, 28400 McCall Blvd, Menifee, CA

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SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is a healthcare justice union of more than 100,000 healthcare workers, patients, and healthcare activists united to ensure affordable, accessible, high-quality care for all Californians, provided by valued and respected healthcare workers. Learn more at www.seiu-uhw.org.


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