Supervisor Lawson-Remer joins health care workers at rally in La Mesa for more pay, better staffing
Article by Phil Diehl | Read full article in the San Diego Union-Tribune
Health care workers still reeling from pandemic burnout called for higher pay and better staffing in a Labor Day rally with about 300 people in the grassy amphitheater at La Mesa’s Harry Griffen Park.
“We are all hard-working people who are fed up with greed,” said Habacuc Serrano, an emergency room technician at Sharp Grossmont Hospital, who helped lead the event. “We are being overworked and spread thin ... patients are paying more for care and getting less results.”
Sharp Grossmont workers voted in February to join the United Healthcare Workers West, part of the Service Employees International Union, which covers a variety of positions including nursing assistants, pharmacy technicians and respiratory therapists. The union is now in negotiations for its first Grossmont contract.
Health care should be “about people, not about profits,” San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer told the crowd Monday.