Medical workers strike at five California medical centers

LOS ANGELES — About 15,000 medical workers on Tuesday started a three-day strike at five University of California medical centers amid a dispute over pay raises and job security, forcing the cancellation and rescheduling of thousands of surgeries and outpatient appointments, officials said.

The workers that included radiology technicians, respiratory therapists and pharmacy workers picketed the medical centers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Irvine and Davis.

Another 24,000 California union workers, ranging from truck drivers to gardeners and cooks, were striking in sympathy, said John de los Angeles, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299.

Emergency rooms remained open at the hospitals, but officials said the strike would still affect thousands of patients.

The UC San Francisco hospital rescheduled more than 4,000 appointments at its medical center and two associated clinics and rescheduled 241 surgeries, including “pretty high-risk” gynecological and colorectal operations, said chief operating officer Sheila Antrum.

Ten patients, including children, were sent to other hospitals, she said.

The hospital had 500 temporary employee replacements on hand, Antrum said.

The union said some of its workers would keep working to ensure patient safety, and it has a “patient protection task force,” a group of emergency services staffers who are prepared to cross the picket lines if they are needed to work because of a medical crisis, de los Angeles said.

Patient care workers have been without a contract since December. Talks and mediation efforts have stalled, and the university plans to impose new employment terms next month, de los Angeles said.

The union wants the university to stop outsourcing low-wage work that it claims is fueling widening income, racial and gender gaps for workers at UC’S hospitals, clinics campuses and research facilities.

The same issue prompted a threeday walkout by 53,000 UC workers last May, including custodians and cafeteria workers. Nurses and other medical workers walked out then in sympathy.