SEIU-UHW Opens Push for $25/Hr CA Wage After Secret Seismic Deal Implodes

The California Nurses Association railed against the "backroom deal."

Just days after the collapse of an alleged backroom deal with hospitals to swap relaxed seismic standards for higher wages, a California healthcare workers' union opened its push to enact a statewide $25 healthcare minimum wage.

More than 200 members of the Service Employees International Union – Union of Healthcare Workers West will meet with state lawmakers to press for the statewide wage hike that has already been enacted in four Southern California cities.

"Through the process of passing local ordinances and talking to elected officials about statewide legislation, we've discovered an enormous appreciation for healthcare workers among lawmakers and the public and an understanding of how low wages are making the healthcare staffing crisis worse," says Dave Regan, SEIU-UHW president.

"There is a broad understanding that it was frontline healthcare workers, not greedy hospital executives, who put their lives on the line and continue to carry California through the COVID crisis. We are calling on every city in the state to pass a local ordinance establishing a $25 minimum wage immediately. We are calling on the legislature and, if necessary, the state's voters to establish a $25 minimum wage within the year."

In a media release, the union claimed that the California Hospital Association "walked away from a conceptual agreement that would have broadly established a healthcare worker minimum wage of up to $25 and update the timeline and scope for seismic upgrades to hospitals."

"The hospital industry demanded a loophole that would have allowed hospitals to evade the new minimum wage by outsourcing or moving work to other facilities. The hospital industry also refused to commit to using properly trained construction workers to ensure safety in seismic upgrades of their facilities," the union says.

Contrary to the SEIU-UHW’s claims, various media outlets reported that the union was willing to support delayed seismic upgrades for hospitals in exchange for higher wages.

The Los Angeles Times, citing an internal CHA memo, said the deal "came together quickly and followed years of stymied attempts to delay a state law that requires hospital buildings to have earthquake upgrades by 2030," which would cost about $100 billion and force closures across the state.

News of the deal infuriated the California Nurses Association, which charged that "backroom deals with the healthcare industry have long been a trademark of SEIU."

CNA President Sandy Reding, RN, railed against the deal, saying "it is unconscionable that any union would demand handouts from our elected leaders to support a gift to the hospital industry instead of prioritizing the lives, protection, and safety of patients, hospital workers, and our communities."

"We call on California officials to reject this appalling proposed backroom deal that could endanger countless lives and access to essential care for many others across our state from the next major earthquake that is sure to come," Reding says.