A union representing 2,000 Providence workers contends staffing levels and shuttered departments under Providence have compromised medical care at local institutions including Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa.
Health care workers at Providence hospitals and facilities in Sonoma, Napa and Humboldt counties are scheduled to hold an informational picket on Wednesday, part of a wider campaign calling for higher wages and increased staffing.
The workers, represented by the National Union Healthcare Workers, include about 2,000 respiratory therapists, medical technicians, nursing assistants and hospice nurses across the Providence network in Northern California. The health care giant now owns six hospitals in the region; NUHW represents workers at five of those facilities.
The union contends staffing levels and shuttered departments under Providence have compromised medical care at local institutions including Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa.
Both hospitals were part of the St. Joseph Health system before it merged with Providence in 2015. Providence also owns the two former public hospitals in Petaluma and Healdsburg.
“It’s really heartbreaking how we have fallen so far in the past 10 years,” said Psyche Clark, an obstetrics technician who has worked at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for nearly three decades.
Clark, who is part of the union negotiating team and works as a surgical scrub technician in labor and delivery, said that when she started working in the 1990s, Memorial Hospital attracted experienced staff who moved up from other local hospitals. She said it’s the other way around now.
She said wages under Providence are not competitive with that of local Kaiser Permanente or Sutter Health facilities.
“Every time you turn around they’re closing something, And we’re so short staffed. We’re the trauma center. We should be the best,” she said.
Providence called the union’s action Wednesday a negotiating tactic aimed at gaining public support for their position. The action is not a strike or work stoppage, the company noted, and impacts to medical services are not expected.
“We are maintaining all hospital services during the pickets, and our ability to care for the patients who are counting on us will not be compromised,” Providence told The Press Democrat in an emailed statement.
Though about 2,000 Providence employees are represented by NUHW, the company expects far fewer will participate in Wednesday’s action.
NUHW members will be picketing during their time off, between shift changes and their lunch breaks, according to the union.
The picketing will take place in front of four Providence hospitals in Sonoma, Napa and Humboldt counties. In Santa Rosa, workers are expected to picket in front of Memorial Hospital and Memorial Hospice between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.
In Petaluma, workers at Petaluma Valley Hospital and Hospice of Petaluma and are scheduled to picket during that period. NUHW workers at Queen of the Valley are expected to picket between 6:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., while staff at St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka are scheduled to picket between 3 and 6 p.m.
Union officials said its workers are all currently working without a contract. NUHW members at Queen of the Valley have been in negotiations since March, while those at Memorial Hospital have been negotiating since September.
The union represents 820 employees at Memorial Hospital, include medical technicians, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, as well as a recently organized professional unit that includes dieticians and physical therapists.
At Petaluma Valley, the union’s 150 workers include medical technicians, nursing assistants and respiratory therapists. The union represents some 125 workers at Providence Hospice, including nurses, social workers and home health aides.
At Queen of the Valley, some 450 workers are represented by the union. That includes respiratory therapists, medical technicians, nursing assistants, and janitorial staff.
NUHW said that since 2020, Providence has closed its outpatient labs in all three counties, as well as birthing centers in Humboldt and Sonoma counties, Humboldt County’s only acute rehab unit and two urgent care clinics in Sonoma County.
Gabriela Caro, a scheduler in Queen of the Valley’s imaging center, said care under Providence has suffered since they took over operations from St. Joseph a decade ago.
“They’ve been closing departments and cutting staff,” Caro said. “It’s been a making it hard. Patients are waiting longer for care.”
Staff, she said, “need this contract to be able to preserve services so we can be a hospital that the community can continue to believe in.”
Providence rejected claims its medical care is less robust since its takeover of St. Joseph, adding that “continuously evaluate areas of opportunity for service improvement” at its hospitals.
“We are the same organization started by the Sisters of St. Joseph more than a century ago,” Providence said in its statement to The Press Democrat.
You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.