One Resident Deals with a Labor Strike

Friday, 10/21/05

The strike is still on. Both my preceptor and advisor met with the San Francisco Chief of Police, Heather Fong, just this morning to ask her for more support from the police department (not enforcing the noise ordinances, etc.) I prepared a "Strike Incident" report binder/scrapbook for their meeting. It was a compilation of pictures, patient letters, neighbor and employee reports of how this strike is disruptive to the hospital, and gave evidence of how the picketers are being unlawful: vandalism, harassment, trespassing, etc. It was 2" thick. We were just asking for more cooperation from the police and more consistency among the campuses in enforcing the law. We'll see if it works.

Other strike-related activities with which I have been involved:

• Rounding on three of the skilled nursing facility floors during the strike (asking them what's going well, do they have the supplies they need, is there anything out of the ordinary that they want to report, etc.);
• Being the “Soup Lady” at two of the three campuses, on different days. I served lentil soup and chili con carne to employees, families, and visitors because the food service workers (along with the janitors and the nurses aides) were honoring the picket line, and they needed people for food service duty;
• Attending the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Government Audit and Oversight Committee meeting at City Hall, Legislative Chambers. The lesson learned from this experience is to never “engage,” meaning no matter how much people try to bully you and incite you to become angry, you have to remain calm, keep your cool, and just deliver the facts.
• Manning the strike command center (where I triage phone calls, incident reports, and update the strike log by recording pertinent events as they occur). As well, I helped ensure the replacement worker shift change happened smoothly and securely.

9/28/2005

I’m serving soup at the Davies Campus! (Look closely…I’m wearing a hairnet!)