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By Marcelle Richards

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union and UCLA Medical Center representatives will begin discussing ways to resolve hospital understaffing Wednesday.

The situation gained public attention Aug. 15 when union organizers led workers through the Medical Center in protest.

Threatening to distribute results from a survey on understaffing to patients, the workers received a call Aug. 20 by the senior associate director of patient relations and human resources, Mark Speare, to establish a date to negotiate.

“Over the years, the union does raise concerns and we’ve had issues and concerns, but we’ve worked through those differences,” Speare said. “Certainly, the parties are talking.”

Though the protesters initially demanded to meet by last week, both sides postponed the date to allow the hospital to gather bargaining criteria.

Speare said negotiations will begin Wednesday but may not be finalized then.

Meanwhile, AFSCME organizers are pushing for a resolution by the set date.

“We basically gave the ultimatum,” said Luu Doan, AFSCME organizer. “They asked for a few more days so we’re trusting they’ll come to us with something concrete. If we don’t see a conscious action by then, we’re going to deliver the (survey) to patients.”

AFSCME claims an inconsistent distribution of labor among the unit service associates – workers who deal largely with patient cleanliness and food service.

Currently, USAs have more work to do than they can handle in a safe and adequate fashion, Doan said. The union plans to push for the hiring of more workers to assist the associates while maintaining the number of USAs.

“We’re at the point where we’re tired of sitting down,” said Xavier Neal Richie, senior custodian for environmental services. “People used to not want to speak, but now it’s totally different.”

Though the hospital’s management agrees modifications are needed, Speare said the change will come from within the existing staff, as workers are reassigned to more specialized work.

Doan also said anti-union behavior among supervisors, including yelling, and discouraging union activity by threatening to fire non-career status workers, is another major reason for action.

Speare said he is unaware of such behavior and that the union must present specifics if they wish the management to take action regarding the alleged misconduct.

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