Workers at the UC San Francisco Medical Center went on strike Friday to protest its recent layoffs, which included some frontline workers.
The strike included service and patient care workers who believe UCSF Health has “wrong financial priorities” that will worsen an already severely understaffed frontline workforce, said the union that represents the workers, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, in a news release Friday. Thousands of employees across the network participated in the strike, according to Todd Stenhouse, a spokesperson for the union. There were about 100 people at the picket lines and 300 people at the Friday rally, Kristen Bole, a spokesperson for UCSF, told SFGATE.
The layoffs have included “nursing assistants, lab and surgical technicians, vocational nurses, and radiological technicians,” the union’s statement said. Stenhouse told SFGATE by phone that they believe the frontline workers were “disproportionately targeted” in the mass layoffs…