By Marcelle Richards
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
union and UCLA Medical Center representatives will begin discussing
ways to resolve hospital understaffing Wednesday.
The situation gained public attention Aug. 15 when union
organizers led workers through the Medical Center in protest.
Threatening to distribute results from a survey on understaffing
to patients, the workers received a call Aug. 20 by the senior
associate director of patient relations and human resources, Mark
Speare, to establish a date to negotiate.
“Over the years, the union does raise concerns and
we’ve had issues and concerns, but we’ve worked through
those differences,” Speare said. “Certainly, the
parties are talking.”
Though the protesters initially demanded to meet by last week,
both sides postponed the date to allow the hospital to gather
bargaining criteria.
Speare said negotiations will begin Wednesday but may not be
finalized then.
Meanwhile, AFSCME organizers are pushing for a resolution by the
set date.
“We basically gave the ultimatum,” said Luu Doan,
AFSCME organizer. “They asked for a few more days so
we’re trusting they’ll come to us with something
concrete. If we don’t see a conscious action by then,
we’re going to deliver the (survey) to patients.”
AFSCME claims an inconsistent distribution of labor among the
unit service associates ““ workers who deal largely with
patient cleanliness and food service.
Currently, USAs have more work to do than they can handle in a
safe and adequate fashion, Doan said. The union plans to push for
the hiring of more workers to assist the associates while
maintaining the number of USAs.
“We’re at the point where we’re tired of
sitting down,” said Xavier Neal Richie, senior custodian for
environmental services. “People used to not want to speak,
but now it’s totally different.”
Though the hospital’s management agrees modifications are
needed, Speare said the change will come from within the existing
staff, as workers are reassigned to more specialized work.
Doan also said anti-union behavior among supervisors, including
yelling, and discouraging union activity by threatening to fire
non-career status workers, is another major reason for action.
Speare said he is unaware of such behavior and that the union
must present specifics if they wish the management to take action
regarding the alleged misconduct.