UC San Francisco Health Care workers demand Quality Patient Care

On Wednesday, October 11, members of University Professional and Technical Employees, CWA Local 9119 (UPTE), the union representing nearly 800 health care workers at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center staged an informational picket at three UCSF locations.

Members of UPTE were joined by members of other unions at UC including American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), California Nurses Association (CNA) and Coalition of Union Employees (CUE) as they picketed and distributed flyers at UCSF’s Parnassus and China Basin campuses and at San Francisco General Hospital.

UCSF Medical Center employees are the area’s lowest paid health care workers. UCSF caregivers are leaving in droves to other area hospitals that pay significantly more and UC has recently proposed a 1% pay cut through increased pension contributions,

“UCSF health care workers are already severely underpaid”, said Sharon Valdez, UCSF Clinical Lab Scientist. “Taking a pay cut in the form of increased pension contributions will mean that UCSF will fail to recruit and retain the best staff.”

UC is demanding that employees start contributing into the pension plan, despite a recent report (http://www.upte.org/VenutiReport.pdf) that questions many of their assumptions.

“I love my patients and clients and the health care teams with who I work”, said Chris Radke-Schmidt, UCSF Licensed Clinical Social Worker. “It’s a shame that UC doesn’t realize that cutting corners by paying people as little as possible means that patient care is compromised when they can’t attract qualified professionals.”

UPTE-CWA 9119 represents over 2,300 health care workers such as Clinical Social Workers, Pharmacists, Clinical Lab Scientist, Audiologists and Social Work Associates at 5 UC Medical Centers, and the 9 campus student health centers.