USC health care workers vote this week on strike authorization

More than 1,500 Keck-USC health care workers are voting this week on whether to authorize a five-day strike as they fight for better pay and benefits and the right to protest unsafe working conditions.

If approved, the work stoppage would take place at Keck Hospital of USC, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and several university clinics and call centers.

The strike authorization vote began Monday and will conclude today. Contracts expired for most of the USC workers at the end of April. No strike date has been set, and negotiations had been scheduled for Friday and this Thursday.

The workers — including nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, housekeepers, medical technicians and licensed vocational nurses — are represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers.

They had a noon gathering Friday at Hazard

Park in Los Angeles with several elected officials and community leaders in attendance.

Brian Dodero a respiratory therapist at Keck Hospital of USC, said the union wants USC to include a pandemic preparedness component in the new contract.

“This has been a oncein-lifetime pandemic that none of us ever expected and we want to make sure that what we have learned is included,” he said.

Dodero said USC has cut the workers’ retirement plan in half due to an $852 million settlement with more than 700 women who have alleged sexual abuse by former campus gynecologist George Tyndall.

“We’re trying to protect our future, so we want that money back,” he said. “They’re telling us they’ll start back with that at the beginning of the year, but we want something in writing and we want the money to be retroactive.”

Keck’s response

In a statement released Friday, Keck Medicine of USC said its proposals offer improvements in numerous areas, including staffing, workplace safety, above-market compensation and other issues important to its health system and employees.

“We remain hopeful that we can solidify an agreement without a work stoppage,” the statement said. “Keck Medicine has upheld exemplary safety measures throughout all stages of the pandemic. Taking care of our staff — both physically and emotionally — is fundamental to ensure the highest quality care for our patients.”

Keck said its Care for the Caregiver program includes free housing for workers between shifts to help keep family members safe during the pandemic. Staffers also have access to free mental health support, as well as tutoring for young children, legal services and on-site grocery services, Keck said.

Lower wages

A fact sheet from the union shows that USC health care workers earn an average of 14% less than their counterparts at UCLA.

The starting wage for a USC radiology tech, for example, is $32.56 an hour, but the same position pays $41.05 an hour at UCLA. An entry-level pulmonary tech at USC earns $37.76 a hour at USC, according to the fact sheet — more than $3 below the starting wage of $41 at UCLA.

Union leaders say USC is proposing to eliminate the workers’ right to picket, leaflet or inform the public about issues inside the hospitals.

The union also is look- ing to ban USC’s ability to subcontract positions to lower-paid, nonunion workers.

The union said USC has eliminated nine paid holidays for workers at the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, adding that USC rewrote rules that made it easier to fire workers and harder for employees to use their allotted time to care for family members.