Rady Children’s Hospital is challenging a vote to unionize by more than 1,500 frontline workers, including environmental services attendants, patient care assistants, patient access representatives, food service workers, medical interpreters, and medical assistants. The workers cited staffing shortages and working conditions they say affect patient care as the reasons behind the vote to unionize on Jan. 6.
Jose Barrios, a medical interpreter at Rady Children’s Hospital, said the delay means ongoing staffing problems will take longer to resolve.
“We experience those burdens of feeling like we're letting families down because we simply have too much on our plates,” Barrios said.
About a quarter of patients rely on interpreters to communicate symptoms, concerns, and medical histories, he said.
“In a heavy day, I've gotten up to about 18 or 19 patient interactions in a single day, and I can tell you that, as somebody who's been working in this industry for 13 years, that is above … far beyond what a human brain can handle in terms of assuring accuracy, adequate interpretation, and just best practices,” Barrios said.
In a statement, Rady Children’s Hospital said concerns about union conduct during the election campaign and in-person voting prompted it to file an objection with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to investigate. NLRB is the federal agency that oversees union elections and reviews disputes before a union can be officially certified.
“I think that this was a tactic to delay the inevitable outcome of our victory,” Barrios said.
Until the labor board rules, the hospital is not required to begin contract negotiations.
Workers want to bargain for better pay, staffing, and health care coverage. Barrios said he is worried about patients whose families don’t speak English fluently.
“There have been people who are barely bilingual, who are not trained in doing medical interpretation, and they are having to interpret medical English to Spanish, which is a safety concern,” Barrios said.
If the National Labor Relations Board overrules the hospital’s objections, the union will be certified and negotiations can begin. If the objections are upheld, the election could be thrown out and would have to be redone.
