A union vote starting Tuesday could decide whether nurses and other health care workers at Kern Medical walk out on strike two weeks later because of what organizers say are low wages and unfair labor practices but which the hospital says is an effort to rewrite a grievance and disciplinary process.
The hospital on Wednesday presented what it called its last, best offer to more than 1,600 employees represented in 14-month-old contract negotiations by Service Employees International Union Local 521. That same day, the medical center's operator, the Kern County Hospital Authority, approved a one-year contract worth up to $15 million to hire replacement workers, if necessary, to cover shifts during a strike.
The union's bargaining team has signaled it will urge membership to reject Wednesday's contract offer as an inadequate response to an exodus of underpaid workers at a time of a labor shortage. It has accused Kern Medical of labor violations, and on Tuesday filed a lawsuit alleging the KCHA broke public disclosure laws related to a local surgery center the union says is related to the hospital.
Both sides agree the pandemic has exacerbated a shortage of health care workers. They differ on what should be done about it.
Local 521 and its members say Kern Medical has resisted paying wages that would put the hospital on even footing with nearby medical centers that have hired away nurses from Kern Medical. Instead of paying elevated wages to temporary workers, they say, the hospital authority should invest in the local workforce.
Wasco City Councilman Alex Garcia entered the fray Monday with a letter to the Kern County Board of Supervisors urging its members to engage with the KCHA to raise wages, fill job vacancies and "get this crisis resolved."
"This cannot be good for patient care," he said of vacancies at the hospital.
Kern Medical says it wants to raise wages but that the union is insisting on changes to a disciplinary process put in place in 2016 that, in the Hospital Authority's view, provides a fair system of checks and balances whose outcomes are appealable in Kern County Superior Court.
The union said it was unable to address the hospital's accusation the strike plan is more about trying to revise a disciplinary and grievance process more than it is about pressing for higher wages.
Kern Medical noted local hospitals have traditionally imported health care staff to care for patients during labor shortages. Although $15 million is a lot of money, the KCHA said in a statement, "critical hospital and clinic services must remain open and available to the public should a strike occur."
"Kern Medical strongly encourages SEIU to accept our last, best and final offer to give our employees the much-needed wage increases they deserve," it stated.
Local 521's most recent contract with Kern Medical, covering workers ranging from emergency room technicians to sanitation workers to medical therapists, expired Oct. 31, 2020.
Negotiations toward a new contract began in May 2021. In September, the hospital says it gave the union a comprehensive wage proposal, adding that Local 521 provided a counterproposal in early May.
On July 7, the union announced a three-day strike would begin July 26 — next week. It accused hospital management of refusing to recognize eligible workers in bargaining units, making unilateral changes to working conditions and withholding information relevant to good-faith bargaining.
At that time, Local 521 also decried high fees paid to traveling nurses and said the hospital would need to raise its wages by 24.7 percent to match pay at Bakersfield's Mercy Hospital.
Then, on Monday, the union filed a suit in Kern County Superior Court saying the KCHA, working with an executive consulting firm, has declined to provide what it calls public information on a semi-independent surgery center on Stockdale Highway whose employees Kern Medical has classified as being unrepresented by Local 521.
The suit asks the court to declare the center, Kern Medical Surgery Center LLC, a public agency and force the Hospital Authority to disclose financial and other information about it.
Kern Medical declined to address the lawsuit, saying it does not comment on pending litigation.
The hospital authority's delivery Wednesday of what it calls its best, final offer triggered a ratification program in which members of Local 521 will vote on whether to accept Kern Medical's terms. If they vote to reject the contract offer, a three-day strike could be scheduled to begin Aug 9.
