OAKLAND, Calif. and BERKELEY, Calif., June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Last night at the latest negotiation session with Sutter Health, caregivers served Alta Bates Summit Medical center representatives with a lawsuit which charges the corporate giant with assault, battery and false arrest of a union organizer and battery of a 27-year employee. The lawsuit was filed in California State Superior Court. The assault and battery by security guards occurred during the run up to a vote on an inferior contract offer by Sutter Health. The contract did not include standards that had just been accepted by Catholic Healthcare West covering 14,000 workers, such as a voice for caregivers in setting appropriate staffing levels and a training fund. Resorting to physical intimidation appears to be an attempt by Sutter to influence the vote by stopping caregivers and union staff from distributing information about the offer’s shortcomings. These tactics were ultimately unsuccessful, and caregivers overwhelmingly rejected Sutter’s offer by 90%.
The lawsuits describes how on May 27, a union organizer for the Healthcare Workers Union, SEIU 250, was seized by a security guard at the Ashby campus of ABSMC in Berkeley. The guard then shoved the organizer into an elevator, kept him in the elevator against his will, slammed him up against a wall and then continued to threaten him by following him closely while the organizer tried to distribute information to employees about Sutter’s inferior contract offer.
In another incident on May 30, at the Herrick Campus of ABSMC, also in Berkeley, a guard grabbed the organizer with both hands and pushed him back towards the entrance of the hospital. At that point a 27-year employee and union activist, Beverly Griffith, asked what the guard he was doing. In response the guard manhandled her, grabbing her and pushing her away. Guards then called the Berkeley Police and made a citizen’s arrest against the union organizer. The police hauled the organizer off to jail where he was held for hours until he was given a citation and released. To add insult to injury, Sutter then suspended Beverly, who has had zero disciplines in her 27-year career.
“I’m a mother of three, a union activist, and I’ve helped keep this hospital running for almost three decades,” said Beverly. “When the security guard was pushing me around, he said ‘I’m only doing what they told me to do’, so I know this kind of abuse is coming down from the top. But I’ll be darned if I’ll let Sutter Health and Alta Bates Summit CEO Warren Kirk intimidate me and try to stop me from standing up for my community and our patients.”
“This is reminiscent of the 30’s and the oppression by the barons of industry when working people were standing up for the 8 hour work day, the minimum wage, social security and workplace safety,” said Sal Rosselli, President of SEIU 250. “Today we’re standing up for a different issue -- a voice in patient care -- but Sutter is so opposed to this, they’re resorting to the same tactics that were used in the 1930’s. Sutter should accept industry standards for hospital care, if CHW and Kaiser can do it, so can Sutter.”
SEIU 250 represents over 3,400 employees at Sutter hospitals throughout Northern California. With over 95,000 total members, SEIU 250 is the largest and fastest growing health care union in the Western U.S. We represent every type of health care worker, including nursing, professional, technical, paramedic and service classifications. Our mission is to achieve high quality health care for all.
CONTACT: Dave Bates, +1-510-773-8950, for SEIU.
SEIU 250
CONTACT: Dave Bates, +1-510-773-8950, for SEIU
Web site: http://www.seiu250.org/
