HEMET – Even as negotiations continue on a new contract, healthcare workers plan a 24-hour strike starting Monday at two area hospitals to protest what their union calls substandard healthcare and an alarming employee attrition rate.

The strike is scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. at Menifee Valley Medical Center and Hemet Valley Medical Center, said Tadzio Garcia of the United Healthcare Workers-West chapter of the Service Employees International Union. Picket lines will be staffed for 12 hours.

The union is upset that the Valley Health System, which owns the hospitals, has filed for bankruptcy and taken steps to close a 90-bed skilled nursing facility in Hemet, which will put staff out of work.

According to Garcia, the VHS has also incurred $100,000 in fines for alleged substandard care at the facility.

“We don't want to strike, but we can't sit by while (management company) Quorum guts the vital services our communities depend on,” said Patricia Wilson, a union organizer who works at Menifee Valley Medical Center. “We've lost dozens of experienced caregivers to other hospitals already.”

Union organizers said they have made concessions in order to keep the hospitals running at a high level of care but charge that management cares more about cosmetic changes than patient welfare.

Jessica Lopez, a shop steward and respiratory therapist at Hemet Valley Medical Center, said management has spent millions on paint and computers.

“Our biggest concern is that they keep closing departments,” Lopez said.

The Hemet Valley Health Care facility, open for nearly 13 years, is being closed, even though “they've had offers to buy it or lease it,” she said.

The union says it has already conceded $4.8 million in insurance benefits but that management wants even deeper cuts, even though healthcare workers at the hospitals cannot afford health care for their own families.

Jerri Randrup, vice president for communications and marketing at Valley Health System, issued a statement expressing the agency's disappointment in the strike decision.

“We have continued to bargain in good faith, having met with SEIU on Sept. 18 and 24, during which time SEIU rejected several economic and other key provisions to allow management to make and implement decisions vital to our future success,” she wrote.

Randrup said the strike would be illegal if it takes place, violating a no-strike provision of a tentative agreement between the union and management.

A strike would endanger patients, but the hospitals will stay open during the job action, Randrup said.