On Wednesday, nearly 500 technical and professional employees at MarinHealth Medical Center in Greenbrae and 700 members of the California Nurses Association began a 24-hour strike over health care costs and delayed contract negotiations.
When replacement workers were hired on a temporary contract, the hospital told the striking workers not to come to work until 7 a.m. Saturday.
“We are all locked out for an additional two days. This is an outrage,” said Lynn Warner, a nurse and chief representative of the nurses’ association. “The same hospital that complains about our health care cost is paying scabs for three days three times what they pay us.”
According to Susanna Farber, vice president and chief negotiator for the workers’ union, Teamsters Local 856, rising health care costs are the central complaint, but they are also protesting what they call bad faith contract negotiations.
The strike involves workers ranging from respiratory therapists and emergency department technicians to environmental services and food service staff. Like the nurses, the workers’ contract expired June 30, and they have been in negotiations for nearly a year.
According to the union, MarinHealth, formerly known as Marin General Hospital, has proposed health care cost increases through a new contract with UnitedHealthcare. Farber said the current plan, which stays in place during bargaining, included a free HMO option. Employees can buy a PPO option. Under UnitedHealthcare, monthly costs could reach as much as $1,000 for some workers.
“MarinHealth has the ability to put out a request for competing bids for other health care providers,” said Farber. “They are telling us that they are not able to consider alternatives for some reason.”
MarinHealth, which employs about 2,000 workers overall, did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
“Inflation has gone up 18% nationwide,” said Josh Greene, a registered nurse who works in the hospital’s cardiac catheterization laboratory. “Here in Marin, housing — our biggest expense — has risen nearly 80% in the last decade. The people caring for the community can no longer afford to live in it.”
Greene said hospital revenues are up 15% since 2020, and executive compensation is up 25%.
“But staff wages are actually falling this year,” Greene said. “What are they offering us? Wage increases that don’t keep up with inflation. When nurses can’t afford to stay, patient care suffers. Experienced nurses leave, seasoned staff leaders leave, and institutional knowledge disappears.”