Marin General Hospital received notice that on Friday, February 1, 2019, both the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) and Local 39 will go on strike; commencing at 6 am PST. The NUHW will strike only on Friday, with employees returning to work on Saturday, February 2. Local 39, however, has communicated its intent to strike until an agreement can be reached. At issue for both unions is the topic of employee health plan coverage.

Marin General Hospital offers our employees the very best health benefits and we are proud to do so.

The proposed HMO program will be free not only for eligible employees but their family members as well. It is an exceptional HMO plan with low point-of-service costs, offering access to: UCSF Health, Marin General Hospital, Sonoma Valley Hospital, Santa Rosa Memorial, and John Muir Health.

In addition to the HMO, we are also offering a PPO option for those that wish to “buy up.” The cost of buying up to the PPO plan will still cost our employees less than what employees of other hospitals pay for a PPO.

These offerings are extremely generous and not the standard for the market. Most employers, including all of our healthcare competitors, collect some portion of premium from employees for various levels of plan coverage, and charge co-pays higher than we do.

We will continue to offer our employees a robust and highly competitive benefits package. The plans that have been proposed exceed those of our competitors and are the “best of the best” in quality, cost sharing, flexibility, and richness of benefits.

Both of the unions have contracts with numerous hospitals in the region, but none of those contracts include health benefits as generous as what Marin General Hospital has proposed. We are working to reach an agreement with both NUHW and Local 39 and look forward to achieving a mutually agreeable contract.

Marin General Hospital will continue to deliver our patients exceptional, safe, healing care without disruption. All of our departments will be open and fully operational for current patients and for those who find themselves in need of care.

Thank you for allowing us to serve you well as Marin’s Healing Place since 1952.