Hundreds of caregivers at Kindred hospitals in Brea and Westminster will embark on a 3-day Unfair Labor Practice Strike starting Tuesday, as they seek a contract that addresses low wages that have led to constant worker turnover and chronic understaffing. 

WHO/WHAT: A 3-day Unfair Labor Practice Strike authorized by 155 workers at Kindred Hospital Brea and 160 workers at Kindred Hospital Westminster. Workers include nurses, nursing assistants, housekeepers and respiratory therapists.

WHEN/WHERE: Picket lines will run from 8:30 am to 5 pm, Tuesday, January 27 to Thursday, January 29, at Kindred Hospital Brea, 875 N Brea Blvd., and Kindred Hospital Westminster, 200 Hospital Circle, Westminster.

“We want to provide care at a hospital that is safely staffed for patients,” said Matt Garcia, a respiratory therapist at Kindred Hospital Brea. “Patients come to our hospital to get better and get back to their homes, but it’s hard for them to get the care they need when we’re always short-staffed because workers keep leaving.”

The 48-bed hospital in Brea and the 109-bed hospital in Westminster treat patients for longer stays, typically after discharge from acute-care hospitals. These facilities are critical components of the health care system, but Kindred, which owns both Orange County facilities, has refused to pay workers enough to avoid rapid turnover that has contributed to rampant understaffing. 

After more than five months of contract negotiations, Kindred, which a private equity fund owns, is still proposing annual raises that would be lower than the current 2.7 percent inflation rate. The contracts at both hospitals expired last summer, and workers have warned that already low wages are putting patients at risk.

• In a union survey, 64 percent of workers reported that there is usually not enough staff in their department, and 70 percent said they can’t provide safe and timely care due to heavy workloads. 
• More than one in four workers have left Kindred Brea and Westminster hospitals over the past two years.
• Between 2022 and 2025, the two hospitals combined for more than 80 substantiated investigations and fines totaling more than $22,000 issued by the California Department of Public Health.

“We’re seeking a contract that will help us better support our families and better care for our patients,” said Elias Hernandez, a monitor technician at Kindred Hospital Brea. “We know that low wages result in unsafe staffing levels and inadequate care, and we’re not going to let Kindred continue to exploit the patients we serve and us.”

Kindred has no excuse to shortchange patients and caregivers. It’s part of ScionHealth, which is owned by the private equity firm Apollo Global Management. Apollo, which reported $4.5 billion in profits last year and manages $751 billion in assets, controls 220 hospitals across 36 states.

The strike is based on an Unfair Labor Practice charge against Kindred for using cameras to surveil its workers illegally and for failing to provide NUHW with the requested information about the surveillance.

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The National Union of Healthcare Workers is a member-led movement representing 19,000 healthcare workers in California, including 325 at Kindred hospitals in Orange County.