Around 1,800 frontline healthcare workers at four Prime Healthcare facilities in Southern California are planning to go on a seven-day strike over the Christmas holiday, starting on Wednesday.
This will be the second strike at Prime Healthcare facilities in the region. The first strike took place in October when the same union, SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, went on a five-day strike.
The four Prime Healthcare facilities that will be affected by the strike starting on Wednesday are Prime St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, Prime Centinela Medical Center in Inglewood, Prime Encino Medical Center in Encino, and Prime Garden Grove Hospital Medical Center in Garden Grove.
During the strike, picket lines will run daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. from Wednesday to Friday. The strike will continue through the holiday, and workers will return on December 27, according to SEIU.
Prime Healthcare, based in Ontario, California, has expressed disappointment in the strike and stated that negotiations with SEIU are ongoing. The company claims to have made proposals that would increase wages, provide a valuable healthcare plan, maintain important benefits, and be competitive with other hospitals in the market.
Regardless of the strike, Prime Healthcare says it remains committed to providing quality patient care to communities throughout the holidays and always.
Workers at Prime Healthcare hospitals in Southern California are going on strike due to long-standing issues of understaffing, worker turnover, and concerns about patient care. The SEIU-UHW union has claimed that their efforts to address these issues through negotiation have been met with bad-faith bargaining and unfair labor practices by Prime Healthcare management.
Dolores Aguilar, a unit secretary at St. Francis Medical Center, stated that Prime management has been intimidating and silencing healthcare workers who raise concerns about patient care and staffing. Aguilar and three other front-line healthcare workers were suspended from the medical center after participating in a protest at Prime Healthcare’s headquarters in Ontario.
The strike includes front-line healthcare workers such as emergency room technicians, licensed vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants, radiology technicians, medical assistants, and respiratory technicians, among others, according to the union.
Despite the strike, Prime Healthcare has stated that their hospitals will remain open.
