Woman hospitalized after kicked to the ground by military-trained CPMC security guard

Several caregivers were physically assaulted by CPMC security personnel after a candlelight vigil at the hospital this morning. Striking dietary aide Lorenna Hernandez was hospitalized with abdominal injuries after being kicked to the ground by military trained security at CPMC. Several other caregivers filed police reports after being kicked and punched by security guards

“The security guards were out of control. I was on the picket line, and security starting shoving us off the sidewalk,” said Hernandez. “I fell to the ground and one of the guards kept kicking me in the stomach. Everyone was yelling at him to stop and trying to get him off me.”

CPMC hired the temporary security personnel from Steele Foundation, an expensive international security firm that sends private armed guards to volatile areas around the world. In 2001, Steel Foundation guards were engaged in fighting a paramilitary coup attempt that resulted in the death of four people at Haiti’s National Palace. California Pacific Medical Center hired the Steele Foundation guards in an effort to intimidate the caregivers forced to strike for better patient care at CPMC.

Since the strike began 31 days ago, Steele Foundation guards have shoved, spit on, sexually harassed, and threatened Nursing Assistants, Licensed Vocational Nurses and other hospital caregivers. Yesterday morning over 70 Steele personnel attacked a largely female group of caregivers protesting peacefully at the hospital’s Pacific campus.

“We were just walking on the picket line and security started running toward us. They told us we needed to get off the sidewalk, but it is our legal right. Besides there was fast traffic on the street,” said Maria Salina, a central distribution aide at CPMC. “They started pushing us, shoving me hard in my shoulder and neck.”

Today’s events were just another saga in Sutter CPMC’s most recent dirty history.  After first accepting a federal mediator’s compromise CPMC later reneged—leaving the caregivers no choice but to strike.

Please sign the petition at www.sutterstrikersforpatientcare.com and tell Marty Brotman, the CEO of Sutter CPMC, and the Board of Directors to end this unnecessary strike.