Strike broadens, closing some services
30 elective surgeries had to be rescheduled and therapy clinics were closed for the day
Hundreds of workers at Valley Medical Center and O’Connor Hospital picketed Thursday as a strike by Santa Clara County’s largest union entered its ninth day.
The strike led to the daylong closure of outpatient physical and occupational therapy services at VMC and O’Connor, although outpatient therapy was still available at nearby Moorpark Medical Clinic and 30 elective surgeries were rescheduled, the county said in a news release Thursday morning.
Patients of the Express Care clinic at VMC instead were treated at the Moorpark urgent care clinic and pediatric patients and obstetric and gynecology patients were seen at the urgent care clinic across from VMC on Bascom Avenue.
The move comes after Service Employees International Union Local 521 leaders dismissed the county’s “last, best and final” contract — which its members will be voting on Tuesday — as “disingenuous to the process of good-faith negotiations.”
The county’s proposal includes the same salary offer as a previous one — annual raises of 3% over five years, plus additional increases for certain workers — but omits a requirement that workers contribute 2% more to their health care premiums.
In a statement Wednesday night, Valley Medical Center MRI-radiologist Linda Quach accused the county of disregarding the needs of patients by ignoring vacancies.
“We are simply asking for accountability on behalf of the county to address the widespread vacancies and their inability to recruit and retain
appropriate staffing,” she said.
SEIU also contends that the more than 1,500 vacancies across county departments contribute to low staffing levels, which in turn negatively affects public services.
At Valley Medical Center on Thursday, hundreds of employees holding signs lined Bascom Avenue, including emergency room technicians, janitors, licensed vocational nurses, MRI technicians and mental health workers.
Signs near the entrance to one building said, “We are open” and a paper taped to the glass doors apologized for “the inconvenience of any delays you may experience today.”
County CEO Jeff Smith said that at least nine registered nurses in the emergency room at Valley Medical Center did not show up for work Thursday, possibly as a show of solidarity with the union, which doesn’t represent them.
The county, fearing that some nurses might join the labor action, used contract nurses to fill those absences, Smith said.
“There’s a slowdown of service and timing disruptions, but no critical disruptions,” Smith said Thursday morning.
1,000 picketed Wednesday
On Wednesday, the union estimated that 1,000 employees from 11 departments — including the Registrar of Voters, Department of Corrections and Behavioral Health Services — picketed.
SEIU, which represents 12,000 county employees, had called a strike earlier this month after filing several unfair-labor practice complaints with the state involving the restructuring within the Department of Family and Children’s Services and the relocation of a Family Resource Center in East San Jose to downtown, as well as staffing changes within the department.
The county is hoping to take the dispute to mediation if union members don’t accept the latest proposal.
The union on Friday presented its own proposal.
Representatives have not shared any details, but county CEO Jeff Smith previously told this news organization it is “even farther away” from a previous proposal that asked for a 16% raise over three years.