Healthcare workers plan pickets at Tenet Healthcare centers starting July 11
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY, Calif. – Healthcare workers plan on picketing outside of 12 Tenet Healthcare facilities to call for additional support in their workplace beginning on Jul. 11.
Two of those centers are in our local area including Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo and Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton.
“We are simply asking for additional support to improve working conditions. We put our lives at risk during the pandemic and were called ‘heroes,” said Bridgette Lamere, a Respiratory Therapist at Tenet's Emmanuel Medical Center in Turlock. “We are calling on our employers to increase their investments in workers to ensure the additional support of healthcare workers, our patients, and our entire communities.”
Negotiations have been ongoing since April before the announcement of the planned pickets.
Maria Leal, a Communications Specialist with SEIU-United Health Workers explained, "Throughout negotiations, we’ve delivered all our comprehensive proposals that address healthcare staffing, the additional support needed in the workplace, and the economic disparities in our hospital markets. We’ve been bargaining since April and have had no responses from Tenet regarding our economic proposals or most recent staffing proposal."
Bargaining between representatives for the healthcare workers and Tenet Healthcare will continue Thursday and Friday of this week with four additional sessions scheduled in August.
Tenet Health released the following statement in response to the planned pickets:
The labor union that represents some of our employees is planning picketing events outside of our hospitals. We have been, and continue, negotiating with the union, bargaining in good faith, to reach an agreement on a contract.
Our hospitals will be fully operational and our staff’s focus, as always, is on providing exceptional quality patient care.
While we value all of our employees who are represented by the union, we are disappointed that the union is taking this action. Our focus is to ensure the best possible outcome for our hospital-based service, maintenance, and technical employees.
Tenet Health Central Coast
