SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 2,000 Bay Area caregivers and their community and political supporters marched through the streets of San Francisco to Yerba Buena Gardens on Saturday morning, urging Sutter Health to agree to a Federal Mediator’s compromise settlement and avert a major strike scheduled to begin Tuesday.
Speaking to the crowd of healthcare workers represented by the Service Employees International Union, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President, Aaron Peskin, demanded that Sutter Health accept a Federal Mediator’s recommendation to settle a contract with caregivers. “Sutter should not just say yes to the Mediator’s proposal, they should say yes RIGHT NOW! Sutter, do not make me mad.”
Peskin was joined at the march and rally by State Senator Carole Migden, Assemblymember Mark Leno, Assemblymember Leeland Yee, San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, San Francisco Supervisor Fiona Ma, and Berkeley City Councilmember Chris Worthington.
“You are right and we are going to support you,” said State Senator Carole Migden. Soon after, Assemblymember Mark Leno told the energetic crowd, “We say Yes to the Mediator’s settlement and we want Sutter to sign it.”
The emphatic statements came after a week in which a string of California’s leading public officials, including Mayor Gavin Newsom, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, urged Sutter to settle under terms proposed by the Mediator. Also issuing statements supporting the caregivers were Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates.
Some 4,500 caregivers, represented by SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West, issued a 10-day strike notice on Sept. 2, setting in motion a formal process that could lead to the nation’s biggest open-ended healthcare strike in nearly 20 years. Another 3,500 healthcare workers, including nurses represented by the California Nurses Association, are poised to join the caregivers in a sympathy strike.
The 140,000-member SEIU United Healthcare Workers -- West is the largest healthcare union in the western United States and represents every type of healthcare worker, including nurses, professional, technical and service workers.
CONTACT: Thea Lavin +1-510-520-7732
SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West
CONTACT: Thea Lavin of SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West,+1-510-520-7732
