MEDIA ADVISORY FOR:
Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2024

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – A strike may be looming at San Diego County’s largest healthcare employer. On Thursday, October 24, frontline healthcare workers employed by Sharp Healthcare expect they may be forced to announce details of a potential strike authorization vote at a press conference starting at 10:30 am at the Marriott Mission Valley.

Just over a year after the largest healthcare strike in US history with Kaiser employees, the labor negotiations covering 5,000 Sharp Healthcare workers—represented by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West—have become the largest single-employer labor negotiations in California.

Healthcare workers say a series of unfair labor practices related to contract bargaining are at issue, along with simmering staff concerns related to unsafe staffing levels that can lead to dangerously long wait times, mistaken diagnoses, and neglect.

If Sharp Healthcare executives don’t take swift action to rectify the unfair labor practices that will be detailed at the press conference, workers say they’ll have no choice but to strike. Workers also say the company needs to immediately and substantively address the growing care crisis across its facilities.

Barring a resolution of the unfair labor practices in question, the frontline healthcare workers expect to be announcing a strike authorization vote date and plans at the press conference on Thursday.

WHAT: 5,000 Sharp Healthcare frontline workers to announce strike authorization vote

WHEN: Thursday, Oct. 24 @ 10:30 am

WHERE:  San Diego Marriott Mission Valley, 8757 Rio San Diego, CA 92108

Sharp Healthcare has a reported net worth of nearly $5 billion, pays its CEO more than $2.4 million and gave its top executives more than $12.8 million in 2022. CEO Chris Howard’s compensation has increased more than 43% since 2020 while frontline healthcare worker pay and benefits have stagnated. Workers want Sharp to invest more in patient care, staffing and better working conditions instead of executive pay.

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SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is a healthcare justice union of more than 100,000 healthcare workers, patients, and activists united to ensure affordable, accessible, high-quality care for all Californians, provided by valued and respected caregivers. Learn more at www.seiu-uhw.org.