Unionized nurses at West Hills Hospital are set to walk off the job Wednesday to show their discontent with working conditions after six months of negotiations with the facility’s corporate ownership.
According to Service Employees International Union Local 121RN, the strike will commence at 7 a.m. Wednesday and continue at intervals until Monday at 7 a.m.
The West Hills hospital workers’ stoppage will coincide with similar ones at Riverside Community Hospital and Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Palms — all of them owned by Nashville-based Healthcare Corporation of America.
For Wednesday’s first day of picketing at West Hills, an array of elected officials is expected, including state Sen. Caroline Menjivar, and Assembly members Chris Holden, Luz Rivas, Pilar Schiavo and Adrin Nazarian, according to SEIU spokesman Hal Weiss.
SEIU Local 121RN represents about 400 RNs at West Hills Hospital, Weiss said.
Pickets are expected to run from 7 a.m. to noon daily over the five-day period, with curtailed hours on Thanksgiving.
HCA Healthcare did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The picketing stems from stalled labor negotiations, which started in May, according to the union.
Nurses complain that nurse-to-patient ratios are creating a “system-wide crisis” because units are understaffed, according to an SEIU statement.
The union said that over the last three years, California Department of Public Health officials determined there had been hundreds of staffing violations at each of the medical facilities.
“On many hospital units, patient sitters — who carefully monitor patients and intervene to prevent falls and injuries — are replaced by off-site virtual sitters, who watch patients on a video monitor and can only give verbal instructions, often to patients who are confused or facing emotional crisis,” according to an SEIU statement. “Nurses say that this system is woefully inadequate to help patients who can inadvertently, or intentionally, harm themselves.”
Other complaints include what the union says are deficient security to prevent workplace violence, the prevention of union reps from entering some facilities to communicate with members and “disinformation” circulated by administrators related to a previous work stoppage in 2020.
There was no specific mention regarding salary and benefit hikes, though SEIU 121RN Executive Director Rosanna Mendez pointed out that “working people everywhere are demanding recognition for their sacrifice, and that sentiment is strongly felt by health care workers.”
It was unclear how the hospital would handle staffing, or whether any shortages are anticipated as a result of the labor action during the holiday period.