Safety Conditions Melt Down at Alameda County Medical Center's Fairmont Hospital

1021 Blows the Whistle: Hospitals may be hazardous to your health

"I can honestly say I felt safer working in the jail [where I used to work] than I do here." That's the word from Valery Myers, a nurse and SEIU 1021 member at Alameda County's Fairmont Hospital, who joined with her co-workers on Wednesday, April 8 in a rally against unsafe working conditions at the hospital.

We don't mean "unsafe" as in loose floorboards or junk obstructing doorways. We mean nurses and other staff being physically assaulted by patients. It would be as ironic as the Alanis Morissette song if it weren't so tragic: a place of healing is now where healers get hurt.

"Union officials say their members are at risk nearly every day because of a changing patient mix at the 109-bed skilled nursing facility in San Leandro, which now includes patients released from John George Psychiatric Pavilion, a population their workers are not trained to handle," reported the Oakland Tribune.

Fairmont is part of the Alameda County Medical Center, which has been meeting with SEIU members to address the problem. But six years after a doctor was actually killed by a mentally unstable patient at John George, it's hard to see what's improved.

See and hear Maricela, Valery, Lillie and other 1021 workers at Fairmont in the video produced by Local 1021: