MarinHealth Medical Center heads to strike, lockout

Nurses and technical and professional employees at MarinHealth Medical Center in Greenbrae plan to stage a one-day strike on Wednesday, Feb. 18.

MarinHealth administrators have informed the striking employees that they will not be allowed to return to work until Feb. 21.

“The hospital announced to both unions that they are locking out employees on Thursday and Friday,” said Lynn Warner, an 18-year nurse at the hospital and the nurses’ chief representative on the bargaining team. “We only wanted to do a one-day action, but they have now turned it into an additional two days where the patient population will not be served adequately with professional health care.”

Warner said MarinHealth chief executive officer David Klein nixed a scheduled “town hall” meeting on Feb. 10 after nurses indicated they planned to attend and canceled negotiations scheduled for next week.

The hospital’s 700 nurses are represented by California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. An additional 500 technical and professional employees represented by Teamsters Local Union 856 will also strike on Feb. 18 and be subject to the lockout, said Susanna Farber, the union’s vice president and chief negotiator.

These employees include respiratory therapists, anesthesia technicians, emergency department technicians, phlebotomists, surgical technologists, certified nursing assistants, environmental services aides and food service workers.

In response to questions, MarinHealth released a brief statement indicating that it had received notice of the strike. The statement made no mention of the lockout but stated that the labor action would “conclude on Feb. 21 at 7 a.m.”

“The hospital will remain fully open and operational,” the statement said. “We have made extensive preparations to ensure there is no disruption to the safety, quality, or availability of care for our patients and the community. Scheduled appointments, procedures, and surgeries are proceeding as planned unless patients are contacted directly by their care teams.”

The contracts of both employee groups expired in June. A major sticking point in the negotiations for both groups is the hospital’s proposal for the employees to begin paying a share of their medical costs.

“We were given a proposal that would triple the cost of our health insurance, which is outrageous,” Warner said. She said the nurses’ costs for health care would increase 14% under the hospital’s proposal.

Farber said the hospital’s proposal would increase the out-of-pocket maximum payment from $1,500 to $4,000. In addition, employees would be expected to pay contributions of up to $1,000 per month.

Currently, MarinHealth provides free health maintenance organization coverage to both employee groups. Farber said her union’s employees have historically accepted lower wages as a tradeoff to secure the employer-paid health coverage.

Warner, however, said the nurses have other concerns besides the cost of their health care.

“We want to have enough staff on duty to provide safe care,” she said. “If our census increases during a shift, we want to be able to have nurses on standby to come in to provide that adequate care.”

California law sets minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, but Warner said MarinHealth Medical Center sometimes fails to comply with the law.

“The nurses file complaints routinely about this and ask management what can be done about it,” she said. “They tell us they don’t have nurses available.”

Warner said nurses have submitted formal complaints to the California Department of Public Health.

“They’re looking into the issue right now,” she said.