Santa Cruz: Hundreds of healthcare workers protest at Dominican Hospital

Hundreds of healthcare workers are protesting at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz over concerns that the interest of patients and the community will be ignored after the hospital’s owner -Dignity Health- merges with Colorado-based non-profit, Catholic Health Initiatives.

“Patients, workers and the community need to be reassured that this new corporation is going to look out for them in the future,” said Kevin Barraza, an employee at Dominican Hospital. “It’s all too common for a mega-corporation to squeeze employees and harm patients in the process rather than invest in both of them.”

For people like Brian Miller, who works at the hospital, and has lived in the area for 40 years, it is personal. He is concerned over what a mega-merger could mean to the place he’s known since birth. “This is the hospital my family comes to when they need care,” adding “(I want to make sure) patients coming in today, patients coming in tomorrow, in the future, receive the same quality of care that my family has received.”

A release by United Healthcare Workers West claims CHI eliminated nearly 3-thousand full-time jobs last year.

“I don’t see how that helps you provide the best care you can. Anytime we see that it shows you’re
main priority isn’t your community, it is your bottom-line,” Barraza said.

Employees are concerned for patients and themselves.

“I am a single mom and I am the sole provider for my family. We are all about patient care
and providing the best patient care to our community,” Dominican Hospital Employee, Estefana Capetillo, said.

This is happening with negotiations between Dignity Health and the union.

“Dignity is going in the right direction, but we are not quite there yet,” Barrazo said. He adds “we like to think we’re an investment, so we would like to feel invested in.”

The Dominican Hospital protest is one of 27 being held across California between February 20 and March 7 at facilities owned by Dignity Health.

Dignity health sent KION this statement on Tuesday: “Last month, Dignity Health began negotiations with the SEIU-UHW on a new master agreement for about 15,000 employees that SEIU represents at 28 Dignity Health hospitals in California. Throughout these negotiations we have shown respect for our employees and Dignity Health continues to bargain in good faith. We pledge to maintain open lines of communication, and do everything we can to reach an agreement that is fair to our employees, our patients, and our organization. As we continue our alignment of Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives the hospital systems share a strong history of working with labor unions to benefit our employees, our patients and our communities. With no geographic overlap in hospital service areas, we will have a stronger operational and financial foundation as a combined organization and do not anticipate any significant impact to local jobs in our service areas as a result of the combination with Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI). We look forward to continuing the conversation, and appreciate our employees’ patience throughout this process.”

In December 2017, the company announced plans to merge with Catholic Health Initiatives, giving it a combined $28 billion in annual operations, according to SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.