At One of LA’s Busiest Hospitals Treating COVID Patients, As Many as One-Third of Staff Not Offered Jobs, Threatening to Leave Key Departments, like the ER, Dangerously Short-Staffed

LYNWOOD, Calif. – On the eve of Prime Healthcare taking over as the new owner of St. Francis Medical Center, turmoil has descended on the hospital with as many as one-third of employees losing their jobs, many in key departments, including the emergency department and environmental services, the department responsible for keeping the hospital clean and sanitized during the coronavirus pandemic.

St. Francis workers who have not been offered jobs by Prime, along with Lynwood Mayor Aide Castro, will leaflet the public and hold a news conference to describe the ongoing chaos and danger to patients and staff at 11:30 a.m. Friday, August 14, at the hospital, 3630 E. Imperial Hwy. in Lynwood.

“I’ve worked at this hospital for 23 years – my entire career – and with the sweep of Prime’s hand I’ve been brushed aside as though everything I’ve given to St. Francis and this community means nothing,” said Mayra Castaneda, an Ultrasound Technician. “All that we feared about Prime taking over this hospital – undercutting quality care and mistreating its own staff – is already happening on day one.”

St. Francis is a hospital that is critical to treating COVID-19 patients in Los Angeles County with one of the highest coronavirus caseloads in the region. As of Thursday, some 300 St. Francis employees have lost their jobs while Prime officials charged with organizing the transition to the new ownership acknowledge to workers that paperwork is being lost or not going through and that the hiring and transition process is in turmoil at a time it can least afford to be.

WHAT: News conference by workers not retained by Prime Healthcare, St. Francis Medical Center’s new owners.

WHEN: 11:30 a.m. Friday, August 14.

WHERE: St. Francis Medical Center, 3630 E. Imperial Hwy., Lynwood.

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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.