Workers Will Be Joined on the Picket Line by Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-27), San Jose Councilmember Raul Peralez, and representatives of Santa Clara Supervisors Cindy Chavez and Dave Cortese 

 SAN JOSE, Calif. – Healthcare workers at two HCA Healthcare facilities, Regional Medical Center and Good Samaritan Hospital of San Jose, will hold pickets at 3:30 p.m. today, Tuesday, July 21, to protest the hospitals’ cut to caregivers’ retirement benefits as workers continue to risk their lives to care for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

HCA Healthcare has received more than $5.3 billion in taxpayer-funded coronavirus relief funds and had gross revenues of more than $12 billion in the first quarter of 2020. Its CEO, Samuel N. Hazen, was paid $26.7 million in compensation in 2018.

“This COVID-19 pandemic has shown our hospitals’ true colors. Healthcare workers and patients are not a priority for them,” said Margaret Yardley, who works in nutrition services

at Regional Medical Center. “Each day we come in and put our lives and our families’ lives at risk. Now they are cutting our retirement even though they received $5.3 billion in bailout money. It’s disgraceful and demoralizing.”

The action will be held with social distancing and participants will be required to wear masks.

WHAT: Healthcare Workers Picket, Protest Retirement Cuts

WHEN: 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday, July 21.

WHERE: Good Samaritan Hospital, 2425 Samaritan Dr. San Jose

Regional Medical Center, 225 N Jackson Ave. San Jose *

* Note that the largest gathering of workers will be at Regional Medical Center.

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SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is one of the largest unions of hospital workers in the United States, with 97,000 members. Learn more at www.seiu-uhw.org.