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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The union representing staff at eight different Sutter hospitals and medical centers across Northern California — including Sutter Lakeside in Lakeport — said frontline health care workers in those facilities have voted to strike.
SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, or SEIU-UHW, issued a statement on Friday evening regarding the strike vote.
“The workers overwhelmingly approved the strike with a 96% vote in support, citing bad faith bargaining by Sutter executives,” the union reported. “Workers have not yet chosen dates and will continue trying to bargain with Sutter executives at upcoming sessions on October 9 and 10.”
Union member health care workers at Sutter Health facilities in Oakland, Santa Rosa, Roseville, Berkeley, Lakeport, Vallejo, Antioch, Castro Valley and San Francisco were involved in the vote.
The union said the strike votes apply to job classes including nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, licensed vocational nurses, environmental services, cooks and technicians.
Lake County News was not immediately able to reach Sutter Lakeside on Friday night for comment on the potential strike.
In August and September, SEIU-UHW members in Lakeport and the seven other hospitals slated for strike held a series of rolling pickets, including a march and rally at Sutter Health’s Sacramento Medical Center that the union said “drew over 1,000 frontline healthcare workers calling for safer staffing, fair pay, and investment in underserved communities across the giant healthcare system.”
At the time of the Aug. 12 picket in Lakeport — the first such action at the hospital in over three years — Sutter officials told Lake County News that the union had announced pickets after just one week of bargaining.
“While we respect the right to demonstrate, these pickets are not impacting patient care. Our hospitals and clinics remain open and fully operational, and we continue to provide safe, high-quality care to the communities we serve. We remain focused on reaching a fair agreement through continued collaboration at the bargaining table,” the hospital’s August statement said.
On Friday, the union statement on the anticipated strike included a statement from union member Nikki Moorer of Sutter Solano.
“We don’t want to go on strike, but we feel like we have to,” said Moorer. “We need management to stop bargaining in bad faith and listen to us to fix working conditions and short staffing. Procedures get canceled, and patients are sent home because there aren’t enough staff to properly stock the equipment we need. That’s not care. That’s a crisis.”
The union workers supporting the strike vote said that Sutter’s management has refused to invest in the staff who make that mission possible.
“Turnover has forced employees to take on multiple roles and work longer hours as experienced caregivers leave for higher-paying jobs. Staffing shortages are stretching the remaining workforce thin and putting patient care at risk. Despite this, Sutter executives refuse to listen to frontline healthcare workers to negotiate for a contract to help solve these problems,” the union statement said.
The union has faulted Sutter for the pay amounts of its top executives, including Sutter Health CEO Warner Thomas, who earned over $11 million in 2023. They’ve accused Thomas of refusing to invest in staffing and patient care.
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