"Right now, we are creating UNAC/UHCP 2.0 newer, stronger version of our union that goes even further in amplifying our voices, our rights, increasing our wages and protecting our patients.."
— UNAC/UHCP President, Charmaine Morales
Unfair Employer Practices
Healthcare workers deserve employers who follow the law, bargain in good faith, honor their commitments, and respect the voices of the professionals who deliver patient care. Too often, we face delayed negotiations, broken promises, attempts to silence workers, and decisions driven more by financial priorities than the needs of patients and caregivers.
Protecting our members from unfair employer practices remains one of UNAC/UHCP's highest priorities. We will continue to hold employers accountable for the commitments they make at the bargaining table and beyond.
What We've Accomplished
- Brought thousands of new members into our union.
- Won 9 certification elections across Northern California and Hawaii.
- Held a strike against an employer who refused to bargain in good faith.
- Exposed delays, broken commitments, and unfair bargaining practices.
- Secured historic wage increases and stronger contract protections.
- Defended and maintained member benefits.
What's Next
- Strengthen protections against retaliation and union interference.
- Expand member engagement and build solidarity.
- Hold employers publicly accountable when they fail to honor their commitments.
- Continue building the collective strength that gives healthcare workers a powerful voice.
Priorities
Charmaine's top three priorities are closely intertwined. They continue to ensure our members have the knowledge, information, and tools to be fully engaged in our union—and to make sure UNAC/UHCP has the strength and influence to take on the challenges ahead in health care.
1. Strengthen and Expand Our Education Program: Expand accessible, year-round education, tailoring programs to the needs of our members and affiliates, and tapping into our own members as educators.
2. Deepen Internal Organizing and Member Communication: Build on the success of our MMA and VMO programs with a structured one-to-one member engagement program that strengthens relationships, two-way communication, leadership development, and collective action--while ensuring members understand and have a voice in emerging workplace issues, including employers’ use of AI.
3. Confront the Growing Concentration of Health Care Power: Counter growing employer consolidation through public policy, regulation, legislation, bargaining, and stronger coordination across unions, the broader labor movement, communities, policymakers, and other allies.
Anti-Union Legislation & Government Action
The decisions made in state capitols and Washington, D.C. shape healthcare long before they reach the bedside. Laws affecting collective bargaining, healthcare funding, workplace protections, and safe staffing directly impact our members, our patients, and the communities we serve.
UNAC/UHCP advocates for policies that strengthen healthcare, protect workers' rights, and ensure every patient has access to safe, high-quality care. When legislation threatens our profession or our communities, we do not stay silent.
What We've Accomplished
- Filed a lawsuit against the federal government to protect collective bargaining rights for Balboa Naval Medical Center.
- Successfully won back collective bargaining rights for Pettis Memorial VA Loma Linda.
- Mobilized members to advocate for healthcare funding and patient protections.
What's Next
- Continue defending collective bargaining rights.
- Fight legislation that weakens healthcare access or worker protections.
- Expand member advocacy at the state and federal levels.
- Build stronger coalitions with labor, community, and healthcare partners.
- Ensure frontline healthcare professionals remain at the center of healthcare policy discussions.
Legislative Priorities
Meaningful change only happens when healthcare professionals organize, advocate, and work with elected leaders to improve laws that affect our workplaces and our communities.
Our legislative priorities reflect what our members experience every day on the front lines of healthcare. By advancing practical, patient-centered solutions, we must continue to help build a stronger healthcare system for the future.
What We've Accomplished
- Successfully championed legislation strengthening California's nurse-to-patient staffing enforcement (SB 596).
- Helped pass legislation expanding affordable nursing education (AB 1577).
- Supported legislation recognizing pregnancy as a qualifying life event for health insurance enrollment (AB 2066).
What's Next
- Continue supporting legislation that strengthens healthcare professions in California and Hawaii.
- Continue the fight for nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in Hawaii.
- Renew efforts to expand affordable pathways to nursing degrees and increase staffing-ratio transparency.
- Ensure AI is used responsibly and protects healthcare professionals' jobs.
- Advocate for stronger collective bargaining rights, including the right to strike and protections for striking workers.
Safe Staffing
Safe staffing is one of the strongest predictors of patient safety, quality outcomes, and healthcare worker well-being. When caregivers are stretched beyond safe limits, patients wait longer, preventable risks increase, and burnout accelerates. Safe staffing protects lives while allowing healthcare professionals to deliver the level of care every patient deserves.
UNAC/UHCP has been a leading voice in the fight for safe staffing. Together, our members have helped establish California as the national leader in staffing protections, and we remain committed to ensuring those protections are enforced. California's staffing ratio laws were groundbreaking, but laws only matter if they are enforced.
What We've Accomplished
- Protected historic nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in California.
- Secured the first-ever commitment to nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in Maui.
- Secured a groundbreaking internal nurse registry to improve staffing stability, reduce shortages, and grow our bargaining unit.
- Elevated staffing as one of our union's top legislative and bargaining priorities.
- Educated lawmakers and the public about the connection between staffing and patient outcomes.
- Fought for stronger enforcement of staffing laws.
- Held employers accountable when staffing practices jeopardized patient care.
What's Next
- Empower members to document unsafe staffing conditions.
- Hold employers accountable when they violate safe staffing requirements.
- Continue advocating for legislation that closes enforcement loopholes.
- Make safe staffing a central issue in public awareness and every future bargaining campaign.
- Invest in and build infrastructure within UNAC/UHCP to enforce existing staffing commitments.
Fair Wages
Exceptional patient care depends on attracting and retaining exceptional healthcare professionals. Fair wages recognize the expertise, responsibility, and commitment our members bring to their patients every day. They also strengthen recruitment, improve retention, and help ensure experienced caregivers remain where they are needed most.
UNAC/UHCP has consistently raised the standard for healthcare workers across California through strong collective bargaining. Every contract we negotiate helps establish a stronger foundation for our members and the future of our professions.
What We've Accomplished
- Secured historic across-the-board wage increases.
- Negotiated one of the largest wage agreements in KP partnership history.
- Continued raising wage standards across multiple healthcare professions.
- Secured wage increases for over 1,200 new UNAC/UHCP members through bargaining initial contracts.
What's Next
- Continue negotiating industry-leading contracts that attract and retain exceptional healthcare providers, without compromising pension or benefits.
- Protect wages against rising costs of living.
- Reduce wage disparities across professions and facilities.
- Ensure employers invest in a workforce that makes quality care possible.
Addressing the Nursing Shortage
Right now in the U.S. over 100,000 critical nursing positions are empty, while almost half of nurses on the job report feeling burned out. This shortage not only puts our licenses at risk, but poses an unacceptable risk to patient safety. This is a self-perpetuating downward spiral because our members often lose colleagues when burnout drives them away.
Solving the nursing shortage requires long-term investment. Waiting lists and expensive nursing programs act as firewalls against new workers entering the profession. UNAC/UHCP is committed to expanding educational opportunities, supporting workforce development, and improving workplace conditions that encourage healthcare professionals to build long, rewarding careers serving their communities.
What We've Accomplished
- Fought hard against a two-tier pay system.
- Raised wage standards for registered nurses and other healthcare professionals.
- Created a 5-year plan to shore up the nursing workforce.
- Helped pass legislation expanding affordable nursing education, including AB 1577 and SB 895.
- Elevated workforce shortages as a statewide policy priority and secured a $300 million investment to expand nursing programs.
- Advocated for expanding nursing program capacity.
- Supported initiatives that reduce barriers to entering the profession.
What's Next
- Expand educational and clinical training opportunities.
- Increase financial support for nursing students and educators.
- Improve retention by strengthening workplace conditions.
- Advocate for workforce planning that anticipates future healthcare needs.
- Continue building a sustainable pipeline of healthcare professionals.
Grow Our Union, Grow Our Strength
Every new member strengthens every existing member. Growth increases our bargaining power, expands our influence in Sacramento, Washington, and Honolulu, and gives healthcare professionals a stronger collective voice. As our union grows, so does our ability to improve wages, staffing, workplace protections, and patient care.
UNAC/UHCP continues to grow because healthcare workers recognize that our strongest voice is a united one. Every organizing victory we've achieved has strengthened our ability to advocate for everyone we represent. Together, we are building one of the most influential healthcare unions in the nation.
What We've Accomplished
- Surpassed our goal of 40,000 members.
- Continued to grow while many unions nationwide experienced declining membership.
- Organized thousands of healthcare professionals across California.
- Became a trusted authority throughout the healthcare industry and labor movement.
What's Next
- Continue organizing healthcare professionals throughout California, Hawaii, and beyond.
- Strengthen engagement among current members.
- Build the next generation of union leaders.
- Expand our influence in emerging healthcare professions.
- Grow our collective voice at every level of healthcare.
Expanding Our Professions
Modern healthcare depends on collaboration. Nurses, pharmacists, therapists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, CRNAs, acupuncturists, and countless other professionals work together every day to provide exceptional patient care. By bringing more healthcare professions together, we strengthen every member's voice while building greater unity across the healthcare system.
As our union continues to grow, so does our ability to advocate for the diverse professionals who care for patients every day. A broader voice means stronger advocacy, greater influence within our facilities, and better outcomes for the entire healthcare workforce.
What We've Accomplished
- Welcomed new professions including certified registered nurse anesthetists, child life specialists, acupuncturists, dietitians, health educators, and audiologists.
- Organized and negotiated collective bargaining agreements for 11 new units across a wide range of healthcare professions.
- Expanded representation across multiple healthcare systems.
- Continued building one of the most diverse healthcare unions in the country.
What's Next
- Continue organizing healthcare professionals across varied disciplines.
- Build stronger collaboration and solidarity among represented professions.
- Ensure every healthcare worker has access to strong representation.
- Expand bargaining strength across the healthcare industry.
- Continue growing a union that reflects today's healthcare workforce.
Social Determinants of Health
Health doesn't begin when a patient walks through the doors of a hospital. It begins in our homes, our schools, our workplaces, and our communities. Housing stability, nutritious food, quality education, economic opportunity, environmental health, and access to healthcare all influence whether people stay healthy, become sick, or recover and thrive.
Because we witness these realities firsthand, our advocacy extends beyond workplace walls. Supporting healthier communities with access to healthcare is not separate from our mission—it is fundamental to improving health outcomes. When families have the basic resources they need, patients are healthier, communities become stronger, and our healthcare system is no longer strained to the breaking point.
What We've Accomplished
- Advocated for expanded access to healthcare.
- Supported policies addressing housing, food security, and healthcare equity.
- Worked alongside community partners to improve public health.
- Elevated the voices of healthcare professionals in public policy discussions.
- Rallied against inhumane and life-threatening treatment of immigrant community members.
- Spoken out against the defunding of Medicaid and SNAP.
- Called out employers whose investments and operations harm community health.
What's Next
- Continue advocating for policies that address the root causes of poor health.
- Strengthen partnerships with community organizations.
- Support investments in housing, nutrition, education, and healthcare access.
- Advocate for policies that improve health outcomes across California and Hawaii.
- Ensure healthcare professionals remain leading voices in shaping healthier communities.
Workplace Safety
Healthcare professionals dedicate their careers to protecting others. They should never have to sacrifice their own safety to do it. Workplace violence, unsafe staffing, fatigue, infectious disease exposure, and inadequate safety protections place healthcare workers and patients at unnecessary risk. Every healthcare professional deserves a workplace where they can provide care safely and confidently.
Creating safer workplaces requires more than policies on paper. It requires employers who invest in prevention, respond to concerns, and partner with frontline healthcare professionals to identify problems before harm occurs. Protecting healthcare workers also protects the patients who depend on them.
What We've Accomplished
- Advocated for stronger workplace safety protections.
- Raised awareness about violence against healthcare workers.
- Strengthened workplace protections through the bargaining process.
- Elevated workplace safety as a legislative priority.
What's Next
- Expand protections against workplace violence.
- Strengthen reporting systems and employer accountability.
- Advocate for safer staffing and fatigue prevention.
- Improve mental health and wellness resources for healthcare workers.
- Continue making workplace safety a bargaining and legislative priority.