A secretive deal between a bunch of hospitals searching for to weaken seismic upgrades at medical facilities and an influential union trying to improve the pay of staff collapsed on Tuesday, simply days after it was made public.
The last-minute alliance between Service Staff Worldwide Union-United Healthcare Employees West and the California Hospital Assn. infuriated different unions, which accused the unlikely pair of creating a backroom deal that skirted the legislative course of and put sufferers, healthcare employees and communities in danger.
In a hospital affiliation memo obtained by The Instances, the group mentioned the cope with SEIU-UHW got here collectively shortly and adopted years of stymied makes an attempt to delay a state legislation that requires hospital buildings to have earthquake upgrades by 2030. Hospitals estimate that these upgrades will value $100 billion, a tab they are saying is prone to end in closures throughout the state.
Earlier than the deal emerged, the hospital affiliation and SEIU-UHW had been locked in a fierce battle over elevating the minimal wage in Los Angeles County for hospital employees. The settlement between the 2 would have required lawmakers to log out on the deal earlier than the top of the legislative session Aug. 31.
The California Hospital Assn. sought a seven-year delay to the 2030 requirement and to restrict the requirements to hospital buildings that present emergency providers, in response to a draft of the proposal obtained by The Instances.
In trade, unions would see the minimal wage for healthcare employees raised to between $19 and $24 an hour starting Jan. 1, with the upper pay going to employees in counties designated as city or semi-urban. Pay would have elevated by $1 an hour in 2024, bringing the hourly minimal wage for some employees to $25.
SEIU-UHW on Tuesday accused the hospital affiliation of strolling away from “a conceptual settlement” over labor-related provisions. In response, the union introduced that it will as an alternative pursue the statewide minimal wage for healthcare employees that it sought within the deal by means of the state Legislature or a poll measure.
The hospital affiliation wrote within the memo that the deal “was not in a position to advance this yr as a result of a number of components together with excessive stakes, a brief timeline, CHA’s dedication to not comply with adjustments that might erode the protections this proposed invoice included, and different teams of organized labor in opposition.”
“We all know that this technique created tough and typically controversial discussions,” the hospital affiliation’s memo mentioned.
Almost all hospital buildings within the state met seismic requirements underneath a 1994 legislation meant to make sure that none collapsed throughout a significant earthquake. The legislation was handed after that yr’s Northridge earthquake, which triggered critical injury to hospitals.
Underneath the identical legislation, a better normal — that hospitals not solely stay standing however be capable of function after a significant earthquake — must be met by 2030. Almost three many years later, virtually two-thirds of California hospitals have but to fulfill the 2030 necessities, in response to the hospital affiliation.
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