Court allows Monday medical walkout
By Guy Ashley, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Posted on Sat, Aug. 28, 2004

OAKLAND -An Alameda County judge has refused to block Monday's planned walkout by health care workers at the Alameda County Medical Center, despite claims the daylong work stoppage could endanger public safety.

Without comment, Superior Court Judge James Richman on Friday rejected a bid by the medical center and Alameda County for a temporary restraining order to block the walkout, which is slated to begin at 12:01 a.m. Monday.

About 500 nurses and other public health care workers are expected to participate in the 24-hour walkout to protest plans to cut nearly 200 more jobs to balance a budget that for years has struggled with deep deficits.

Following Richman's decision, management at the center moved quickly to announce its clinics will be closed Monday in anticipation of the walkout, and that all elective surgeries scheduled during the job action would be canceled.

The center is a network of public health care facilities in Alameda County, including Highland Hospital in Oakland, Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro and three patient clinics in Oakland, Hayward and Newark. The network serves an average of 1,600 patients per day.

Labor groups organizing the walkout say the proposed cuts, which would come on top of an estimated reduction of more than 300 positions over the past year, will cripple patient care at a time when funds from a new health care sales tax hold the hope of improving services.

"This plan is a nightmare," said Frances Jefferson, executive director of the Service Employees International Union Local 616, the largest workers' union at the center.

Jefferson said Richman's decision clears the way for Monday's walkout to proceed as scheduled.

"This is not something we take lightly," she said. "But we're at the point where we feel we must do something dramatic to raise attention to what is going on. They are taking a course of action where programs that people depend on will be damaged beyond repair."

Lawyers for Alameda County and the medical center asked Richman to grant an order that would in effect have halted Monday's planned action "because it presents an imminent threat to public safety and patient care," said Mike Brown, a spokesman for the center.

Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson said he supports the rights of organized labor to call a job action, but said he was surprised by this action because center management still is negotiating planned workforce reductions with the unions.