SAN DIEGO — Hundreds of Sharp Healthcare workers hit the streets Friday morning demanding higher wages and better working conditions.
The workers are part of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West. The union represents everyone from emergency room technicians to patient greeters.
"It's really bad. I can't spend enough time with my daughters. I have to work so much hours just to make it," said Fatima Ghoulim, a healthcare partner at Sharp. "It's not just me, there's many of us at the Sharps going through this. It's the same struggle. We all have to do side hustle jobs to make it in this city."
"I currently work two jobs too. I work one job for Sharp just to cover my rent, and then I work my other job to cover all my other expenses," said David Robinson, an emergency room technician at Sharp.
According to SEIU, new hires get paid $23 dollars an hour. It claims that's not enough to attract and retain qualified people to the healthcare industry.
Ghoulim said they're constantly dealing with staff shortages.
Sharp's response
Sharp sent CBS 8 the following statement:
Sharp HealthCare supports our employees’ rights to organize as well as their freedom of speech rights under the First Amendment. However, we do not agree with the statements made by the union about Sharp at today’s picket/protest event and online:
- Sharp HealthCare is negotiating in good faith. SEIU-UHW claims that Sharp is “slow-walking” the current negotiations. Since June 2023, Sharp HealthCare has been bargaining in good faith with the distinct bargaining units SEIU-UHW established at our health system, beginning with Sharp Grossmont Hospital and Sharp HospiceCare. In our view, SEIU-UHW has extended the negotiations by waiting until five months after bargaining began to introduce their proposal on wages, which is the main topic of any labor contract. What’s more, SEIU-UHW delayed progress in negotiations by filing charges against Sharp with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), five of which have been withdrawn by SEIU and three dismissed by the NLRB. We also believe SEIU-UHW is causing further delays by engaging in regressive bargaining, i.e., introducing new topics that were not included in their original proposals, which is not permitted under labor law. In response, Sharp has filed five unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against the union with the NLRB.
While delaying negotiations at Sharp Grossmont, the union took the time to organize separate bargaining units at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center and then on the Sharp Metropolitan Medical Campus.
- Sharp HealthCare cannot combine separate SEIU-UHW bargaining units into one unit. The union’s desire for “one union, one contract” is at odds with their intentional filing for separate bargaining units at different points in time at facilities across Sharp. The law is clear that when separate filings are made for bargaining units, each bargaining unit is distinct and will have its own contract. As such, we have informed the union since early last year that Sharp will not bargain for a combined agreement.
SEIU-UHW had the opportunity to organize one unit representing workers across Sharp when they first initiated organizing activities. Instead, they deployed a hospital-by-hospital strategy and now insist that Sharp meet their demands.
- Sharp HealthCare has historically provided across-the-board raises to staff. SEIU-UHW claims that Sharp did not start giving employees across-the-board (ATB) raises until the union organized. That simply is not true. Sharp has provided ATB raises for staff on a regular basis, long before SEIU-UHW began organizing at our health system.
- Sharp HealthCare supported a phased-in approach to the state’s new health care worker minimum wage law. SEIU-UHW claims that Sharp fought “tooth and nail” against California’s new minimum wage law for health care workers, which increases wages to $25 an hour by 2026. In actuality, Sharp HealthCare supported the new minimum wage law, and supported a phased in approach. This phased-in approach ($23/hour in 2024, $24/hour in 2025 and $25/hour in 2026) provides the needed time to plan and budget for the increase in expenses in a way that ensures our team members are supported and access to patient care is maintained. Even though the state has delayed the required implementation of this law, Sharp already raised its minimum wage to $23 an hour in May.
- Sharp HealthCare’s employee retention rate is among the highest among health systems in California. SEIU-UHW claims that low pay at Sharp is what’s driving turnover and short staffing. This is not accurate. Sharp’s employee retention rate of nearly 90% is among the highest in the state for hospital systems, according to the California Hospital Association.
Regarding pay, since FY2022 Sharp has made an investment of more than $150 million in increased staff compensation and offers market-competitive wages. And, Sharp’s generous health and wellness benefits add 25% or more to an individual’s total compensation, with free employee health insurance coverage, free employee dental insurance and Sharp contributions to retirement plans and other benefits. In fact, a 2024 analysis of Sharp’s employee medical benefit plans by Keenan & Associates, an independent compensation and benefits consulting firm, found that Sharp continues to offer our employees comprehensive medical benefits that meet, and in most cases, exceed the plan designs and costs of our competitors in the local market.
Sharp is also proud to help team members advance their careers through free tuition opportunities and tuition assistance programs, up to $5,250 annually per employee.
Sharp will continue to bargain in good faith to arrive at contracts for the SEIU-UHW bargaining units at Sharp Grossmont Hospital, Sharp HospiceCare, Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center and the Sharp Metropolitan Medical Campus.
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