MEDIA ADVISORY for Friday, February 16, 2024, 12PM

Press Contacts: 
Jennie Smith-Camejo, jennie.smith-camejo@seiu1021.org, (510) 710-0201
Juliana Park, jpark@ifpte21.org, (408) 921-2187

(San Francisco, CA) — On Friday, February 16, San Francisco city workers represented by SEIU 1021, IFPTE Local 21, and other City unions will rally outside of San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center to shed light on the dangerous impacts of understaffing. In bargaining with City unions, the City administration has recently rejected demands to prevent wasteful spending on contracting out. 

The City spends on average $5.2 billion each year on contracts—and the vast majority of these dollars are awarded to contractors based outside of San Francisco. At least one in ten contract requests are due to lack of staff. The Department of Public Health is particularly short-staffed and relies heavily on contractors to meet minimum standards. SFGH is the only level 1 trauma center in San Francisco, caring for patients no other hospital in the City can take on, making its staffing crisis especially untenable. Since the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) ruled last summer that the City Charter cannot prohibit strikes, city workers are considering a strike as a last resort to protect public services.

WHAT: Rally at SF General Hospital 
WHERE: 1001 Potrero Ave, San Francisco, CA 94110 (at the roundabout)
WHEN: Friday, February 16, 2024, 12PM
WHO: City and County of San Francisco employees: www.FixSFNow.org/whoweare
VISUALS: Nurses and other healthcare workers in scrubs and union shirts marching, chanting, with picket signs

Spokespeople, including Spanish speakers, will be available to the press.

“In all my 16 years with SFGH I have never seen the emergency waiting room more impacted. Our patients are waiting in excess of 6 and 8 hours to receive care, and far too often they give up and leave without getting the care they need and deserve,” said Heather Bollinger (she/her), registered nurse at SFGH and president of the SEIU 1021 RN chapter. “My colleagues on our inpatient units are reporting repeatedly working 12- and 16-hour shifts with no time for meal or rest breaks. SFDPH cannot accept these low standards of patient care and chronic understaffing and continue to claim that providing healthcare equity is their goal. 

“For years we have been asking SFDPH to fill our vacancies with skilled nurses who we know want to live and work in San Francisco. Instead they are choosing to contract more and more registry staff who work short term contracts and take our tax dollars home with them to other cities in other states. Our patients and our nurses deserve better.” 

BACKGROUND: www.FixSFNow.org/background

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The Public Employee Committee of the San Francisco Labor Council brings together over 30,000 dedicated public service workers among 26 unions.