9/13: California Pacific Medical Center Strike

California Pacific Medical Center Strike
Tuesday 9/13!

Friends, Allies and Elected Officials,

Our UHW Sutter Bargaining Team met on Sunday Sept. 11th and decided to only strike the three hospitals in the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco beginning tomorrow, Tuesday Sept. 13th. For now we will suspend the strike at all the other hospitals. After a thorough and thoughtful discussion, our rank and file leaders made clear their logic behind this decision

1) CPMC had already agreed to the Federal Mediator's proposal, but has now blatantly backpedaled under intense pressure from Sutter Corporate and the other affiliate hospitals. Since CPMC has so flagrantly mischaracterized it's position, our members decided that CPMC cannot be let off the hook and must be held to it's agreement.

2) CPMC is Sutter Health's largest affiliate and produces the most profits for Sutter Corporate, so winning a good settlement at CPMC has always been the most important step toward winning good settlements at the other hospitals in the Sutter System.

3) Our Political and Community support, while good throughout all of the Bay Area, is 100% behind the workers in San Francisco and will stand with us to hold CPMC accountable for the agreement that they are now trying to disown.

Overall, the management at the other affiliates are behaving like they actually want to have a strike. Their public statements making assertions that the federal mediator's settlement proposal was not legitimate, despite clear, direct statements from mediator David Weinberg verifying the documents legitimacy is proof positive of this...So our members have decided to deny them the strike they want for now by staying on the job and fighting this battle from the inside.

SEIU-UHW will focus the efforts and resources of all of our Sutter members, all of SEIU-UHW's 140,000 members across the state, and all of the support of SEIU throughout the nation to win an industry standard contract at CPMC that will set the stage for victory at all other hospitals.

We will be getting more details as they become available so that our allies on the East Bay can continue to support this important campaign. If you have specific questions please call SEIU Political Director Sarah Callahan at 510-774-6708. Sarah will be calling some of the elected official's staff today.

Sincerely,

Phil Hayes
Regional Political Organizer
SEIU-UHW
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