Watsonville Community Hospital service workers authorize three-day strike as contract negotiations continue

Watsonville Community Hospital service workers have voted to authorize a three-day strike, days ahead of their next bargaining session with hospital administration. 

The strike vote was supported by 98% of surgical, pharmaceutical, emergency room and lab technicians represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Union representative Maria Leal accused the hospital administration of negotiating with employees in “bad faith.” The union represents nearly 200 workers across two bargaining units at the hospital. 

Contracts for both bargaining units have expired, said Leal. The contract for the largest bargaining unit — representing almost 175 workers — expired last August, and the smaller contract expired in February 2024. The contracts remains in force unless both parties agree to a compromise, Leal said. Employees have been asking for better wages and health care benefits for a year. 

Workers have not yet decided on a date for the three-day strike, as the union and hospital administration have a bargaining session scheduled for Thursday, Leal said. She said union leaders are aiming to reach a resolution with the hospital at the upcoming bargaining session. If not, the service and maintenance workers will proceed with the strike. 

Watsonville Community Hospital said in a statement to Lookout that it will continue to negotiate in “good faith” with employees represented by the SEIU. The hospital could not provide further comment on what it has offered employees during the negotiation process, or how a potential strike might affect hospital operations. 

In December, the same group of hospital employees held an informational picket over wages, health care benefits and staffing concerns. Hospital workers told Lookout they were asking for higher wages that matched industry standards, and also objected to the hospital’s attempt to switch to a health care plan that would be more expensive for employees. 

Compared to nearby hospitals, wages are 20 to 30% lower at the Watsonville location, Leticia Ornelas, a hospital dietician, told Lookout in December. This disparity, combined with the city’s high cost of living, has created what workers describe as a revolving door of short-term employees who leave for better-paying positions after just six months.

At the time, hospital spokesperson Nancy Gere told Lookout that the hospital proposed a 5% cost share for health care benefits for full-time union employees making more than $60 an hour, which is the same percentage hospital nurses pay in accordance with their union contract. 

The hospital is trying its best to get service and maintenance workers’ wages to match market standards as closely as possible, Gere said in December. Hospital administrators proposed an across-the-board 3% annual wage increase, and an additional 1% to 6%  increase for employees furthest away from the industry wages. 

The hospital administration has been trying to change workers’ health care policies without bargaining with them first, said Leal. A change in health care benefits for employees would mean paying more in premiums, she said, and it’s something that has motivated workers to take this step toward a strike. 

“They don’t want to do it through the right process, which is you take it to the bargaining table, and you discuss these things at the table, rather than just trying to do it on your own,” said Leal. 

Emily Tiongsan has been working as a clinical laboratory scientist at the hospital for 23 years and said it’s been frustrating trying to negotiate with hospital administrators for better benefits and wages for almost a year.

“Even though we’re going to lose money while we’re on strike, we are willing to go on strike because we want to be able to get better health care insurance, better pay and better benefits,” she said Tuesday.

If the hospital decides to go with a health care plan that requires employees to pay a higher premium, people could end up leaving the hospital for a better job, she said, directly affecting patient care. 

Clinical laboratory scientists at the hospital are already doing the work of two people, said Tiongsan, because other lab scientists stick around for only about a year before going to a different hospital for better pay. Usually, each department has one clinical laboratory scientist, but due to staffing issues, every lab scientist is in charge of two departments. It slows down the turnaround time, and doctors are having to wait up to two hours for test results, said Tiongsan. 

Before the hospital’s switch in ownership from privately run to publicly owned, employees had free family health care and didn’t have to pay a premium, Tiongsan said. It was one of the main reasons she has worked at Watsonville Community Hospital for over two decades despite lower wages. 

Tiongsan hopes the hospital is able to present workers with a proposal that benefits employees so they don’t have to go on strike. “When we go on strike, who’s going to be affected? The patients, right? So, we don’t want to do that,” she said.

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