UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland workers ratify contract, avert strike

OAKLAND – Workers at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland ratified a new three-year contract this week, averting another potential strike that was authorized for later in the summer.

The roughly 1,300 workers represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers “overwhelmingly” voted to accept the contract, which includes a 13 percent pay hike that’s retroactive to 2022, when the three separate contracts that were on the table expired, according to union officials.

The vote took place on Wednesday and Thursday, a week after negotiating teams from both sides hammered out a contract agreement for service and technical workers, office and clerical workers, and professional workers.

In addition to salary increases, the contract includes a requirement that hospital management provide advanced notice of mergers or ownership changes and “employment safeguards” in such instances, union officials said.

It also includes new career advancement opportunities for professional workers, like social workers and speech therapists, as well as raises for 31 classifications of workers with below-market-rate salaries and the addition of Juneteenth as a paid holiday.

In April, the workers staged a one-day strike, which union officials said was the largest in the hospital’s history, and more recently voted to authorize a three-day strike for later this summer if the two sides failed to reach an agreement.

“This is a good deal that honors our commitment to the families we serve and will help keep caregivers and services in the East Bay,” Stephanie Lum Ho, an office associate at the hospital’s Walnut Creek outpatient center, said in a news release Friday.

The new contracts will apply to licensed vocational nurses, medical technicians, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, housekeepers, mental health therapists, clerical staff and nursing assistants.

Hospital officials on Friday welcomed the ratification vote.

“UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland has served our community for more than 100 years and continues to provide world-class care for children and their families, regardless of their ability to pay,” hospital officials said in an emailed statement. “That commitment extends far beyond any one contract, and we are pleased that our employees ratified this agreement, which honors their excellent work while preserving our ability to provide care in Oakland for years to come.”