Children’s Hospital Oakland staff tell UC regents UCSF integration would cut pay, strip union

Staff and union representatives at Children’s Hospital Oakland told the University of California Investment Committee on May 13 that a planned integration with the University of California, San Francisco would cancel their contracts, reduce take-home pay and threaten patient access.

The complaints came during public comment, where Fran Meriwether, a social worker at Children’s Hospital Oakland, said, “This integration promises a pay cut to dedicated and committed employees, many of whom will suffer greatly because of the higher health care and retirement course.”

The comments matter because the speakers said the proposed affiliation would change employee terms of employment while ownership, licensing and funding would remain the same. That, they said, would transfer Children's…