August 18, 2006

Dear Union Leader,

We are writing to urge you to support healthcare workers and the members of each of our own unions by not using John Muir Health facilities and the John Muir Health Plan.

Members of SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West are locked in a bitter contract fight with John Muir.SEIU UHW struck once, and they are ready to strike again on August 28-29.

Management is trying to impose some of the most backward job security and union rights language of any hospital, or any type of employer.They are also just about the only hospital in the region to refuse safe staffing for patient care contract language.

With patient care issues so important for the healthcare workers at John Muir, it’s no wonder that management would have to resort to forcing their own caregivers into going only to John Muir’s facilities for treatment for themselves and their children by trying to make employees take the substandard “John Muir EPO Health Plan.”The caregivers are doing incredible work under increasingly difficult circumstances.If not for their dedication and hard work, the hospital’s ratings might have slipped even further in recent years.The enclosed data show that it’s time for management to stop making the caregivers’ jobs as difficult as possible, and to put patients before profits.

But this isn’t just about helping our sisters and brothers who work at the hospital. This is also about each of our Unions’ own members: All hospitals have their strong and weak points. That’s why no decent health plan limits access to just two hospitals. John Muir Concord (Mt. Diablo Medical Center) has been rated “Poor” in too many categories.See the attached Fact Sheet for a detailed summary.

Please forward this letter to all members of your local. Please also make this request to your union’s trustees on healthcare purchasing funds: Until John Muir Health shows they care about patient care, and fair treatment of workers, we won’t have anything to do with John Muir Health.

In Solidarity,