MarinHealth medical techs stage one-day strike

Health care union members demonstrated outside the MarinHealth Medical Center on Tuesday as part of a one-day strike to demand higher wages and benefits.

The protest focused on the new contract being negotiated for medical technicians such as radiology and pharmacy workers. Many demonstrators wore National Union of Healthcare Workers shirts as they gathered along Bon Air Road. A few carried signs that read, “Patients Before Profits” and “Pizza Parties Don’t Pay the Bills.”

More than 40 members joined the noon rally where X-ray technologist and bargaining team member Cierra Thlang told them their union has been negotiating with hospital management since September.

“We are so close to the finish line, but we need to stand strong,” she said. “We need to keep fighting, the management is not giving in, they are not giving us fair compensation for the hard work that we do.”

MarinHealth’s CEO, David Klein, on Friday issued a public statement on the demonstration.

“To our surprise, NUHW has chosen to give a strike notice despite the hospital’s continued effort to bargain in good faith,” he said. “Nonetheless, we will continue active negotiations with the NUHW on the remaining few issues, primarily pertaining to compensation, to see if we can reach an agreement that is satisfactory to both parties.”

The union’s 107 medical technicians represented by NUHW at MarinHealth have been without a contract since October. Union organizer Angel Olvera said there used to be 160 members there. He noted that the hospital recently expanded.

“In many cases, they don’t have the techs to support it so it makes things more difficult,” Olvera said.

Thlang mentioned the difficulties members face being unable to afford to live in Marin County but expected to arrive at the hospital to handle urgent cases within 30 minutes.

“Most people can’t live here in Marin in order to meet that 30-minute time requirement,” she said.

She said the bargaining team underwent 13 hours of negotiations with hospital management on Friday, followed by eight hours on Monday, she said.

“They’re still undervaluing us,” Thlang said.

The union seeks a 20% pay raise over the next five years, the union’s lead negotiator Angel Recinos said. He noted that many pharmacy technicians earn annual salaries as low as $50,000 while other local hospitals offer higher wages.

“In order to attract and retain folks here, how are they going to do that?” Recinos said.

MarinHealth operates a 327-bed, level III trauma center in Greenbrae.

Union spokesperson Matthew Artz said that MarinHealth lost about a third of its medical technicians over the past year. He said that the hospital’s bargaining staff wants technicians to accept annual pay raises of 2.5% and higher employee medical costs.

In his Friday statement on the protest, Klein assured patients that it will be “business as usual” at the hospital.

“We will make the necessary arrangements to ensure that there will be no disruption to the quality or availability of care they are accustomed to receiving,” he said.