WHO WILL BLINK FIRST?

Published in the Dec. 6, 2025 issue.

The clock is ticking. 

Union nurses and patient care technical employees at Northern Inyo Hospital District (NIHD) voted overwhelming Nov. 25 to authorize a strike to protest the hospital administration’s “bad faith at the bargaining table.” 

Union representatives and hospital administrators have been unable to resolve deadlocks around staffing levels, cost-of-living (COLA) raises, paid time off and other issues. The union recently filed Unfair Labor Practices charges against NIHD when it unilaterally changed staffing levels without negotiating with the union to implement the changes. 

The hospital’s “failure to propose a COLA became outrageous,” the union noted, when new CEO Christian Wallis was recently hired at a yearly salary of $460,000. That was double Wallis’ salary at his last hospital CEO job in San Diego, and about 8% more than the previous CEO, a union press release states. Employees were also “alarmed by other C-Suite salaries which appeared to have skyrocketed” in recent years.  

The NIHD executive team is presiding over a roughly $4.6 million budget deficit accumulated during the first quarter of the current fiscal year. 

The strike vote and formal notice of the intent to strike announced on Dec. 4, puts NIHD on notice it has 10 days to restart negotiations and “change their position,” states the press release from Local 315 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which represents the separate nurses and tech workers bargaining units. If no agreement is reached, nurses and tech workers will start the strike on Dec. 15. 

“Our contracts are up for renegotiation, our demands are modest yet essential for hiring and keeping staff, but leadership has not been willing to bargain in good faith,” said Heleen Welvaart, RN, and a member of the union negotiating team in an email. “It’s super demoralizing that [NIHD] leadership once again is showing that it does not value our frontline healthcare staff.”

Union negotiators and NIHD management will participate in State Mediation on Dec. 9. Union Representative Jane McDonald said in an interview that the union “is more than ready and willing to get back to the bargaining table.” There have been no formal negotiations between the union and NIH since July, she added. “We’ll meet with them any time” to work on reaching fair deal and avert a strike.  

The union on Thursday noted that NIH management had reached out about resuming talks, but has not scheduled a meeting. If an agreement is reached, the strike can be called off. Union members would then have to ratify the new deal.  

The Sheet contacted NIHD for comment, but did not receive a reply.

Besides not bargaining in good faith regarding staffing issues prompting the labor complaint, “employees are concerned with maintaining a market-based wage strategy with cost of living and fair standby pay.” It is also seeking changes to the policy that requires tech workers to cash in vacation time to get paid when not working on holidays, AFSCME said.  

If those talks don’t result in an agreement, the first walkouts are scheduled for Dec. 15. Nurses and technical workers will both go on strike that day. The tech workers will return to work after the one-day walkout. That group includes medical assistants, admissions clerks, kitchen staff, lab and radiology techs, licensed vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants, environmental services staff, and specialty clinic technical staff, will return to work after the one-day walkout. 

The nurses will continue the strike until Dec. 18, AFSCME states. 

Before the planned strike, union representatives and the hospital’s medical and management teams will meet to design a staffing model “to keep emergency services and other essential services available” to patients, McDonald said. Those consultations are ongoing, she added.  “The union’s disputes are not with the public,” AFSCME states, but with how the current administration has treated its frontline workers. 

Depending on how many nurses and techs go on strike on Monday, some clinics and other patient services could be disrupted or unavailable. The union informed its members Thursday morning that picket lines during the strike would not block access to NIHD facilities and are not meant to keep the public from accessing care. 

Striking workers will not be paid for the days they miss. However, strikers, whether they are union members or not, will have job and pay protections. The union filed Unfair Labor Practice (UPL) charges against NIHD with the state Public Employment Review Board. The law protects workers in a UPL strike from any sort of job-related retaliation from managers or administrators, the review board website states. 

“We want to work here. We want to stay here. We want this hospital to succeed — because our patients and community deserve that,” said Tim McMullen, RN, and member of the union negotiating team in the press release. “But to make that happen, we need a fair contract that recognizes our work and protects this hospital’s future.”  

The union was hoping that this year would build on the successes it achieved along with former CEO Stephen Del Rossi. The union and Del Rossi collaborated to reduce the number of traveling nurses while hiring additonal permanent nurses and staff.  Those successful efforts resulted in substantial cost savings, AFSCME states. Del Rossi also increased nursing and staff pay, which helped recruitment and retention. 

 The hospital’s balance sheet is not exactly healthy.  

As reported in the Nov. 22 and Oct. 18 issues of The Sheet, the hospital had a net loss of $4.6 million during the first quarter (three months) of the 2026 fiscal year, which started in July, Andrea Mossman, chief financial officer, stated at the Nov. 19 NIHD board meeting. 

The shortfall was attributed to lower patient volume generating less revenue and slightly higher expenses.  The “Action Plan” was hoping partnership with Mammoth Orthopedic Institute will recoup “lost surgical volumes and increasing our revenue.”

During the first quarter, salaries were 8% over budget, while contract labor was lower by about $79,000. Benefits were under budget by $467,000.