UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital workers announce end to strike

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Healthcare workers who work at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland striking over an "integration plan" they say will cost them money on June 18, 2025.

OAKLAND, Calif. - Healthcare workers on strike at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland over a controversial "integration plan" announced Sunday that they will be ending their stoppage following an unfavorable court ruling.

The National Union of Healthcare Workers said in a prepared statement that hospital employees will end their strike – which began June 18 – at 6 a.m. Monday. The decision was made after a federal judge on Friday denied the workers’ request for an injunction to stop UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital from moving forward with its integration plan.

Leaders of the union met on the picket line Saturday and decided to call off the strike, but also opted to proceed with ongoing legal options to try to reverse the integration, the NUHW said.

The union is proceeding with a motion seeking to compel arbitration over whether the integration violates its contracts with the hospital. A hearing for the motion is scheduled for July 17.

"Our strike is over, but our fight is still going on," said Willie Williams, an orthopedic technician at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. "We’re proud that we have taken this stand for each other and for the care that we provide East Bay kids. We know that what UCSF is proposing will push out long-tenured caregivers, and we’re still determined to reverse it."

The Integration Plan:

Currently, nurses and technical workers are UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital employees. But a new plan that would start July 6 would transition them to University of California employees.

The unions representing the healthcare workers argue that this transition forces them to pay more for benefits and union representation, so they would lose, on average, $10,000 a year in take-home pay.

UCSF posits that the transition plan puts employees under a single system, allows them to join the same unions representing all UCSF workers in the state, and is a good decision in the long run.

UCSF acknowledged that some take-home pay may change because employees haven't had to pay anything toward their health insurance or retirement, but that will change when they become UC employees "just as their colleagues across the UCSF system do."

In turn, UCSF said that employees "will gain access to a far more valuable pension and comprehensive, long-term benefits."

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