Health Care Workers Protest UC Irvine Staffing Cuts

LAKE FOREST, CA — Earlier this year, the layoff of nearly 200 hospital workers was put into motion with layoffs taking effect starting Nov. 7. On Thursday, approximately 300 UC Health Workers along with students and community leaders picketed those layoffs at UC Irvine Medical Center to demand a reversal of those staffing cuts.

"The cuts have already eliminated as many as 175 jobs and led to work-reduction time for others," said Todd Stenhouse, spokesperson for the University of California AFCME Union, Local 3299 chapter.

Many of those workers were classified as unit service coordinators, the people on the other end of a hospital's call button according to Stenhouse.

Vanessa Garcia, a unit service coordinator with UCI for just over three years, was one of the 28 workers in her field who were laid off on Nov. 7.

"I was very sad to leave behind the patients, nurses and other staff members of UCI," Garcia said. "The nurses have to focus on medications and everything else, and now they have to worry about the call out ringing as well. There are many patients who will have to wait for those calls to be answered."

Garcia, whose mother is also a health unit coordinator of 22 years with UCI, said that her mother has just received a reduction in holiday hours.

"It takes a lot to support yourself in Orange County, to have a roof over your head," she said. "With the Thanksgiving holiday coming, we aren't looking for a big feast or presents at Christmas. We just want the hospital to have us back."

According to John Murray, public information officer for UC Irvine Health, the layoffs were among several steps to ensure that the hospital could continue providing critical clinical services to Orange County.

"None of the positions eliminated provided direct patient care," he said. According to a statement on the layoffs, 25 percent of the positions that were eliminated were in management levels.

"We will continue to provide our patients with high-quality care," Murray said.

As a teaching hospital, UC Irvine Health is focused on training physicians, nurses and other health care providers necessary to meet the needs of the future and conducting research that advances treatments for diseases that affect individuals and groups, Murray stated.

"Other steps taken include eliminating positions through attrition, saving millions of dollars a year by reducing the amount spent on supplies, materials and services," he said. "We are also expanding our clinical operations throughout Orange County and that will generate more revenue."

The decision on which positions to cut was done according to agreed-upon union contract rules, by seniority, according to Murray.

Sign holders waved union signs stating "Bring them Back!," "No Layoffs" and "Safe Staffing Now."

"The workers just want to deliver high-quality patient care," he said. "With fewer staff, it puts not only the patients in a bad position but it also puts the workers who remain in a bad position. They are doing their own jobs as well as someone else's."

Unit service coordinators like Garcia and her mother coordinate all care on a hospital floor.

"If you push the call button, the unit service coordinator gets the immediate care that you need," Stenhouse said. "Who will answer that call button now?"

Staffers at the hospital came out to support their former co-workers during the protest, according to Garcia. All any of the protesters want is to go back to work.

According to Murray, the UCI hospital has a "preferential rehire program," which allows former employees to apply for open positions as they become available.

"Our hope with UCI is that the layoffs be reversed, and that dedicated health care professionals go back to work," Stenhouse said. "At a human level, they are laying off families at the beginning of the holiday season. That, and the rising patient load, does not make sense on a number of levels."

Photos, courtesy Todd Stehnhouse, AFCME Union.