Healthcare workers at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland plan to start an open-ended strike tomorrow in response to what their union calls an illegal plan to cancel existing contracts.
Officials with the National Union of Healthcare Workers represent roughly 1,300 workers. They claim that UCSF Health's "Integration Plan" would amount to canceling union contracts and cutting pay at Children's Hospital Oakland and affiliated clinics across the East Bay.
The union says UCSF Health "would effectively require Children's Hospital Oakland to terminate employees at the hospital and satellite clinics and rehire them as direct UCSF employees."
According to the union, those workers would suffer a pay cut because they would have to pay thousands more toward health and retirement benefits.
UCSF officials argue the move supports their long-term growth plans and aligns employees under a single system.