Nurses strike ‘indefinitely’ at Fresno’s Sunnyside Convalescent Hospital as labor talks stall

Nurses at Fresno’s Sunnyside Convalescent Hospital are on strike again - indefinitely this time - starting Thursday since their employer has not met them at the bargaining table, SEIU 2015 union representatives said.

Sunnyside nursing staff, supporters, and a couple of patients went on strike for one day in late September to protest what they said were unsafe staffing levels, bounced paychecks, and some staff not being paid minimum wage.

Workers have waited two weeks for the Fresno nursing home operators to return to the bargaining table with proposals and haven’t seen changes in the administration’s approach, union officials said in a statement.

“It’s sad for this employer to say he wants to settle, to come back to the table, and be missing in action,” said Maria Xiquin, an SEIU 2015 regional director who represents long-term care workers in Central Valley and Central Coast facilities.

Xiquin said union representatives were scheduled to speak with Sunnyside owner Mario Marasigan on Sept. 23, two days after their daylong strike. But Marasigan has rescheduled talks at least three times since mid-September, she said.

Union representatives were open to bargaining via email, but Marasigan’s attorney told them he wasn’t open to that, she said.

“It just seems like, at this point, they are not willing to bargain,” Xiquin said.

State fines Sunnyside for wage deficiencies

Workers represented by the union previously told The Bee have been negotiating with facility management since February and haven’t reached an agreement that could improve their working conditions.

When Sunnyside staff went on strike last month, Marasigan said the facility was “well-staffed,” and patient care was not affected. However, Sunnyside employees said they worry their patients wouldn’t be taken care of as needed while nurses protest for better conditions.

Sylvia Gomez is a housekeeper at Sunnyside and has worked there for eight years. When she talked to The Bee during the strike in September, she said she isn’t being paid the minimum wage she deserves, and she’s had paychecks bounce when trying to cash them.

She also said her most recent raise was for one cent to bump her wage from $14.99 an hour to the state’s minimum wage of $15 per hour.

Xiquin said the union had requested the state Department of Health Care Services to audit Sunnyside’s wages. Management should be paying 58 cents above that wage for non-medical staff and 78 cents above that for medical staff, and they aren’t, she said.

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The Bee independently verified that the Department of Health Care Services conducted an audit investigating Sunnyside’s paid wages from Jan. 1 to April 30.

The state confirmed there was a variance in payments, where Sunnyside employees were being paid between 33 cents to a dollar’s difference under the minimum wage required.

The Department of Health Care Services fined Sunnyside management $3,038 because of wage pass-through deficiencies, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Bee.

Gomez said ownership of the facility changed three times during the eight years she’s worked there, but it was time for staffing levels, working conditions, and pay to improve.

“Through the ups and downs, I have gone nowhere because I care about the patients, so I do what I’ve got to do for them,” she added.

Raymond Rodriguez is a certified nurse assistant and restorative nurse aide who has worked at Sunnyside for almost 15 years. He talked to The Bee before participating in the September strike and, like Gomez, said some of his paychecks bounced too.

As a nurse, Rodriguez said he has experienced the strain poor staffing levels have on the medical staff. Sunnyside has 107 licensed beds, according to the California Department of Health Care Access and Information. Rodriguez said the majority of the patients are Mexican.

He said there are times when there is only one person on each side of the building, and the workload is not only strenuous on the medical staff but the patients, too.

“They don’t get the care that they deserve because you’re tied between running up and down, answering call lights, changing patients, passing meals, there is no time. It’s really difficult,” he said.

Yet, like Gomez, Rodriguez hasn’t left Sunnyside. Though he has a full-time job at another location, he remains as an on-call staffer because it’s the only way he can continue to see his patients.

Sunnyside’s management response

After Sunnyside staff went on strike in September, Mario Marasigan, Sunnyside’s owner, told The Bee he intended to resume negotiations and hoped to avert another strike on Sept. 22.

However, Marasigan confirmed bargaining meetings didn’t happen.

“In the past few weeks, we have attempted to meet with the union, but due to unforeseen issues, we had to reschedule,” he told The Bee in an email statement. “We are working with the union for a possible date and time in the next week.”

Marasigan also said that management feels the indefinite strike is counterproductive.

“We have employees who prefer to work and take care of our residents,” he said. “What the union doesn’t understand is that our objective is to provide the care that our residents need,” Marasigan added.

Regarding wages, Marasigan said it was an issue under past Sunnyside owners that he tried to correct when acquiring the nursing home.

“When we came in and took over operations, we identified the need for our nurses to have a higher pay which we did adjust within two months of taking over,” he said.

“We provided the nurses with $4 to $5 increase in their wages, a retirement plan was offered to all employees and we also started covering a substantial amount of the employee health plan,” he added.

Previously, Marasigan said he was aware of the state’s audit before the conclusions were published on Sept. 23, and The Bee obtained a copy of the audit report.

“I can’t comment on the details of the audits, but the discrepancy does not fully reflect how our staff is getting paid,” Marasigan said. “Due to the open CBA (contract bargaining agreement), we can’t make further changes until it is finalized.”

Marasigan said his mission since acquiring Sunnyside is to make it one of the best nursing homes in the Valley.

“However, what the union is doing is really slowing down the progress that we have made and is causing a divide,” he said. “As an owner and nurse, it is our responsibility to lead our team to the path that we have envisioned for Sunnyside.”