Burt Young dies at 83; Oscar-nominated actor played Paulie in ‘Rocky’ films

• October 19, 2023

By Andrew Dalton | Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Burt Young, the Oscar-nominated actor who played Paulie, the rough-hewn, mumbling-and-grumbling best friend, corner-man and brother-in-law to Sylvester Stallone in the “Rocky” franchise, has died.

Young died Oct. 8 in Los Angeles, his daughter, Anne Morea Steingieser, told the New York Times on Wednesday. No cause was given. He was 83.

Young had roles in acclaimed films and television shows including “Chinatown,” “Once Upon a Time in America” and “The Sopranos.”

But he was always best known for playing Paulie Pennino in six “Rocky” movies. The short, paunchy, balding Young was the sort of actor who always seemed to play middle-aged no matter his age.

When Paulie first appears in 1976’s “Rocky,” he’s an angry, foul-mouthed meat packer who is abusive to his sister Adrian (Talia Shire), with whom he shares a small apartment in Philadelphia. He berates the shy, meek Adrian for refusing at first to go on a Thanksgiving-night date with his buddy and co-worker Rocky Balboa, and destroys a turkey she has in the oven.

The film became a phenomenon, topping the box office for the year and making a star of lead actor and writer Stallone, who paid tribute to Young on Instagram on Wednesday night.

Along with a photo of the two of them on the set of the first film, Stallone wrote “you were an incredible man and artist, I and the World will miss you very much.”

Sylvester Stallone, left, mugs with “Rocky” co-star Burt Young before a 1996 screening of the film to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

“Rocky” was nominated for 10 Oscars, including best supporting actor for Young. It won three, including best picture. Young and co-star Burgess Meredith, who was also nominated, lost to Jason Robards in “All the President’s Men.”

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As the movies went on, Young’s Paulie softened, as the sequels themselves did, and he became their comic relief. In 1985’s “Rocky IV” he reprograms a robot Rocky gives him into a sexy-voiced servant who dotes on him.

Paulie was also an eternal pessimist who was constantly convinced that Rocky was going to get clobbered by his increasingly daunting opponents. His surprise at Rocky’s resilience brought big laughs.

“It was a great ride, and it brought me to the audience in a great way,” Young said in a 2020 interview with Celebrity Parents magazine. “I made him a rough guy with a sensitivity. He’s really a marshmallow even though he yells a lot.”

Born and raised in Queens, New York, Young served in the Marine Corps, fought as a professional boxer and worked as a carpet layer before taking up acting, studying with legendary teacher Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio.

On stage, in films and on television, he typically played small-time tough guys or down-on-their luck working class men.

In a short-but-memorable scene in 1974’s “Chinatown,” he plays a fisherman who throws a fit when Jack Nicholson’s private detective Jake Gittes shows him pictures proving his wife is cheating on him.

Young also appeared in director Sergio Leone’s 1984 gangster epic “Once Upon a Time in America” with Robert De Niro, the 1986 comedy “Back to School” with Rodney Dangerfield, and the 1989 gritty drama “Last Exit to Brooklyn” with Jennifer Jason Leigh.

In a striking appearance in season three of “The Sopranos” in 2001, he plays Bobby Baccalieri Sr., an elderly mafioso with lung cancer who pulls off one last hit before a coughing fit leads to him dying in a car accident.

He guest-starred on many other TV series including “M*A*S*H,” “Miami Vice” and “The Equalizer.”

Later in life he focused on roles in the theater and on painting, a lifelong pursuit that led to gallery shows and sales.

His wife of 13 years, Gloria, died in 1974.

Along with his daughter, Young is survived by one grandchild and a brother, Robert.

​ Orange County Register 

Teen arrested in Santa Ana hit-and-run crash that injured 12-year-old girl

• October 19, 2023

An 18-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday night, Oct. 18, on suspicion of leaving the scene of a crash that injured a 12-year-old girl in Santa Ana earlier that morning, authorities said.

Investigators served a search warrant on a home in Santa Ana and found a blue, four-door sedan believed to be involved in the crash as well as the suspected driver, police said.

The crash occurred about 8:10 a.m. Wednesday in the 4400 block of McFadden Avenue. Investigators believe the girl was crossing McFadden Avenue, not in a crosswalk, on her way to school when she was hit by a vehicle traveling eastbound.

The driver of that vehicle stayed at the scene, but a second vehicle also hit the girl, police said. The driver of the second car did not stop to render aid or identify herself.

The girl was taken to a hospital where she was stable as of Wednesday night, police said. While she isn’t facing any life-threatening injury, she has a long recovery ahead, said Officer Natalie Garcia, a Santa Ana police spokeswoman, on Thursday.

The suspected driver was booked into jail and being held on $50,000 bail, according to inmate records.

How police identified the car and suspect as the driver were not disclosed.

The first driver cooperated with police and was not arrested.

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​ Orange County Register 

Rams CB Derion Kendrick returns to team facility for first time after arrest

• October 19, 2023

THOUSAND OAKS — Rams cornerback Derion Kendrick returned to the team facility and participated in a walk through Thursday, defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said. It marked the first team activity Kendrick has participated in since his arrest early Monday morning on a felony count of carrying a concealed weapon.

Kendrick spoke with Morris on Wednesday night and had a meeting with head coach Sean McVay on Thursday morning upon his return to the Rams’ team facility. After that, he attended team meetings, Morris said.

The original plan was for Kendrick to participate in practice Thursday, but he left the team facility before it began, according to a team spokesperson.

Kendrick’s status for Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers remains to be determined, with McVay making the final call. But Morris said he is preparing for all possibilities.

Morris said the entire situation has been a lot for Kendrick to deal with this week and something he tried to address with teammates after his return Thursday.

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“It’s really more about him being apologetic for causing any form of distraction. He doesn’t want me up here answering questions about DK Kendrick in a week we’re playing the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Morris said. “So you feel really bad about those things. No matter what the situation is, those are the things that affect these guys the most. Just getting away from our due process and the process that we want to go about for winning football games. Because that’s what we’re all here for.”

​ Orange County Register 

What’s next after nearly 100 days of Hollywood actors strike?

• October 19, 2023

By Andrew Dalton | Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — While screenwriters are busy back at work, film and TV actors remain on picket lines, with the longest strike in their history set to hit 100 days on Saturday after talks broke off with studios. Here’s a look at where things stand, how their stretched-out standoff compares to past strikes, and what happens next.

INSIDE THE ACTORS-STUDIO TALKS THAT FAILED

Hopes were high and leaders of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists were cautiously optimistic when they resumed negotiations on Oct. 2 for the first time since the strike began 2 1/2 months earlier.

The same group of chief executives from the biggest studios had made a major deal just over a week earlier with striking writers, whose leaders celebrated their gains on many issues actors are also fighting for: long-term pay, consistency of employment and control over the use of artificial intelligence.

But the actors’ talks were tepid, with days off between sessions and no reports of progress. Then studios abruptly ended them on Oct. 11, saying the actors’ demands were exorbitantly expensive and the two sides were too far apart to continue.

“We only met with them a couple of times, Monday, half a day Wednesday, half a day Friday. That was what they were available for,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher told The Associated Press soon after the talks broke off. “Then this past week, it was Monday and a half a day on Wednesday. And then “Bye bye. I’ve never really met people that actually don’t understand what negotiations mean. Why are you walking away from the table?”

The reasons, according to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, included a union demand for a fee for each subscriber to streaming services.

“SAG-AFTRA gave the member companies an ultimatum: either agree to a proposal for a tax on subscribers as well as all other open items, or else the strike would continue,” the AMPTP said in a statement to the AP. “The member companies responded to SAG-AFTRA’s ultimatum that unfortunately, the tax on subscribers poses an untenable economic burden.”

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, one of the executives in on the bargaining sessions, told investors on an earnings call Wednesday that “This really broke our momentum unfortunately.”

SAG-AFTRA leaders said it was ridiculous to frame this demand as as though it were a tax on customers, and said it was the executives themselves who wanted to shift from a model based on a show’s popularity to one based on number of subscribers.

“We made big moves in their direction that have just been ignored and not responded to,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator, told the AP. “We made changes to our AI proposal. We made dramatic changes to what used to be our streaming revenue share proposal,” Crabtree-Ireland said.

The studios said just after the talks broke off that the per-subscriber charge would cost them $800 million annually, a figure SAG-AFTRA said was a vast overestimate.

The AMPTP later responded that the number was based on a union request for $1 per customer per year, which was lowered to 57 cents after SAG-AFTRA changed its evaluation to cut out non-relevant programming like news and sports.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IN THE ACTORS STRIKE?

The actors are in unscripted territory, with no end in sight. Their union has never been on a strike this long, nor been on strike at all since before many of its members were born. Not even its veteran leaders, like Crabtree-Ireland, with the union for 20 years, have found themselves in quite these circumstances.

As they did for months before the talks broke off, members and leaders will rally, picket and speak out publicly until the studios signal a willingness to talk again. No one knows how long that will take. SAG-AFTRA says it is willing to resume at any time, but that won’t change its demands.

“I think that they think that we’re going to cower,” Drescher said. “But that’s never going to happen because this is a crossroads and we must stay on course.”

The writers did have their own false start with studios that may give some reason for optimism. Their union attempted to restart negotiations with studios in mid-August, more than three months into their strike. Those talks went nowhere, breaking off after a few days. A month later, the studio alliance came calling again. Those talks took off, with most of their demands being met after five marathon days that resulted in a tentative deal that its members would vote to approve almost unanimously.

HOW DID PREVIOUS ACTORS STRIKES PLAY OUT?

Hollywood actors strikes have been less frequent and shorter than those by writers. The Screen Actors Guild (they added the “AFTRA” in a 2011 merger) has gone on strike against film and TV studios only three times in its history.

In each case, emerging technology fueled the dispute. In 1960 — the only previous time actors and writers struck simultaneously — the central issue was actors seeking pay for when their work in film was aired on television, compensation the industry calls residuals. The union, headed by future U.S. President Ronald Reagan, was a smaller and much less formal entity then. The vote to strike took place in the home of actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, the parents of current SAG-AFTRA member and vocal striker Jamie Lee Curtis.

Mid-strike, the actors and studios called a truce so all could attend the Academy Awards — a move forbidden under today’s union rules. Host Bob Hope called the gathering “Hollywood’s most glamorous strike meeting.”

In the end, a compromise was reached where SAG dropped demands for residuals from past films in exchange for a donation to their pension fund, along with a formula for payment when future films aired on TV. Their 42-day work stoppage began and ended all within the span of the much longer writers strike.

A 1980 strike would be the actors’ longest for film and television until this year. That time, they were seeking payment for their work appearing on home video cassettes and cable TV, along with significant hikes in minimum compensation for roles. A tentative deal was reached with significant gains but major compromises in both areas. Union leadership declared the strike over after 67 days, but many members were unhappy and balked at returning to work. It was nearly a month before leaders could rally enough votes to ratify the deal.

This time, it was the Emmy Awards that fell in the middle of the strike. The Television Academy held a ceremony, but after a boycott was called, only one acting winner, Powers Boothe, was there to accept his trophy.

Other segments of the actors union have gone on strike too, including several long standoffs over the TV commercials contract. A 2016-2017 strike by the union’s video game voice actors lasted a whopping 11 months. That segment of the union could strike again soon if a new contract deal isn’t reached.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TO MOVIES AND TV SHOWS?

The return of writers has gotten the Hollywood production machine churning again, with rooms full of scribes penning new seasons of shows that had been suspended and film writers finishing scripts. But the finished product will await the end of actors strike, and production will remain suspended many TV shows and dozens of films, including “Wicked,” “Deadpool 3” and “Mission Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 2.”

The Emmys, whose nominations were announced the same day the actors strike was called, opted to wait for the stars this time and move their ceremony from September to January, though that date could be threatened too.

The Oscars are a long way off in March, but the campaigns to win them are usually well underway by now. With some exceptions — non-studio productions approved by the union — performers are prohibited from promoting their films at press junkets or on red carpets. Director Martin Scorsese has been giving interviews about his new Oscar contender ” Killers of the Flower Moon.” Star and SAG-AFTRA member Leonardo DiCaprio hasn’t.

​ Orange County Register 

Swanson: Angel City FC makes NWSL postseason with Hollywood grit

• October 19, 2023

Going Hollywood isn’t meant as a compliment.

It’s a knock on superficiality, a dig suggesting image trumps substance. “Hollywood” being all glitz and glamour, life-of-luxury stuff.

Except that’s a facade. And a good one.

Because Hollywood is hard.

You probably know some of them, so you’d agree: Like athletes, people in that business rely on resilience and guts as much as talent and luck. Without it, they couldn’t survive the near-constant rejection, and they wouldn’t put themselves out there to chase their dreams in the first place.

And if you know one thing about Angel City FC club, it’s that it is the professional women’s soccer team in L.A. with the star-studded majority female ownership group, right? Natalie Portman, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Chastain, America Ferrera and so on …

That gives it the appearance of a glitzy, glamorous operation, yes. And it made for an effectively splashy introduction last season, for sure.

But it also makes Angel City a fantastic representative of its city. Especially if you stop and consider the grit and determination that’s being represented by by the A-gamers on the pitch and the A-list owners in the stands.

Together, they’ve delivered a NWSL playoff berth to L.A. for the first time: Angel City is the fifth seed, facing the No. 4 OL Reign at 7 p.m. Friday in Seattle (watch on Paramount+).

“What we have here is people who are ambitious,” said Becki Tweed, Angel City’s interim head coach (interim in name only, I’d assume, considering the team is campaigning for her to win NWSL Coach of the Year after she engineered a momentous midseason turnaround).

“People who are really intentional about growing women’s sports and about visibility and being seen.”

And also winning. Clearly.

“We play in L.A., they’re not very nice to you if you don’t win,” defender Madison Hammond said on a video conference with reporters Thursday. “That’s what the whole point of this has been … and now to kind of translate all of what people call our off-field hype and translate that onto our on-field hype, that’s why it was so special for us to make playoffs.”

Believe it. Angel City ran an 11:11-make-a-wish play to perfection, going on an 11-game unbeaten streak that lifted it from 11th place in the standings into the running for the postseason, all while it navigating injuries and the absences of four World Cup players. (Alyssa Thompson and Julie Ertz played for the United States, Jun Endo for Japan and Ali Riley for New Zealand.)

Angel City’s resurgence began as soon as Tweed took over for Freya Coombe, who was fired halfway through the 22-game season, back when Angel City did look like it was all hype, with a record of two wins against three draws and six losses.

The reversal came with a bit of foreshadowing: a 2-1 comeback thriller over the top-ranked San Diego Wave, Angel City’s rival, on the road at Snapdragon Stadium.

And it continued Sunday with the best performance in the franchise’s young history, a most-validating 5-1 regular-season-ending victory over the Portland Thorns FC – Angel City’s biggest margin of victory in its biggest match yet, because the win nudged the team off a crowded bubble and into the postseason along with five other squads.

But this is no fairy tale. It’s not as if the other NWSL teams have been sticking to a script on Angel City’s behalf.

This is the result, Tweed said, of buy-in and belief. Of players being able to be honest and vulnerable in their roles. And of dealing with so much pressure since June that pressure doesn’t feel much like pressure anymore.

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And so I get it when Angel City players like Riley, the team captain, say they want to ditch the “Hollywood” label.

“This team just fights,” she told reporters earlier this week. “I don’t think that would be the first image people think of when we have this Hollywood atmosphere, but that’s been the defining identity of this team.”

Or as defender Sarah Gorden put it postgame Sunday: “I know we’re in Hollywood, but we’ve never, ever played like that.“

I think, though, if we’re talking about the real Hollywood, the cutthroat and competitive town that rewards outsized resolve and requires enormous drive?

They are so Hollywood.

So get your popcorn ready, because the way this much-ballyhooed upstart of a team is trending, we might see a fitting ending on this location.

POV: You just clutched a playoff spot after scoring a historic FIVE goals in a match

SOUND OFF IN THE COMMENTS ACFC FAM!!#AngelCityFC | #GoOffLA pic.twitter.com/QIRfQPqgOt

— Angel City FC (@weareangelcity) October 16, 2023

​ Orange County Register 

Veteran, businessman Mike Andersen remembered for commitment to service

• October 19, 2023

By Jessica Benda

Contributing Writer

Friends remember Mike Andersen as quick to help — and quicker to dodge the credit.

The U.S. Army veteran and owner of north Orange County-based HVAC company Veteran Air died on Oct. 3 at age 40. He is survived by his wife, Jessica, and their six children.

Now, his community is detailing a legacy marked by service. From delivering free holiday hams to truckloads of shovels during a snowstorm, Andersen’s commitment to helping others was steadfast.

Andersen’s knack for the HVAC business stemmed from his father, Rick, who ran Denny’s Air. Under his father’s guidance, Andersen learned the ropes from a young age, but he took a hiatus when he found a calling in his country. He joined the U.S. Army in 2001, spurring four years of service and deployment to Iraq. When he returned, he wanted to start something of his own: Veteran Air.

To him, it was more than a company, it was an opportunity to help his neighbors. Carolina Velez, Veteran Air’s brand ambassador since 2021, said she recognized his commitment to community from the moment she started.

“When I first met Mike, he told me that he had this passion, this duty, this responsibility to take care of our community,” Velez recalled. “Whether or not he knew the people, whether or not they were doing business with his company, he felt a responsibility to care for those members, especially those members in need.”

In 2021, U.S. Army veteran Mike Andersen, right, speaks during a 9/11 ceremony held at A Field of Honor in Anaheim. Anderson, an Army veteran and owner of Veteran Air in Anaheim died on Oct. 3 at age 40. He is being remembered in his community for is philanthropy. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Many know Andersen from his holiday donations, in which he annually bought hundreds of hams and turkeys from local businesses. A couple days before Thanksgiving and Christmas, he and his team would set up a tent and invite anyone in need to come pick one up. Last year, Velez said it almost fell through, but Andersen managed a last-minute save.

“Till this day, I have no idea how he managed to pull that off,” Velez said of his quick thinking. “But it was just one of those events that he believed needed to happen, because so many families were counting on it.”

His compassion extended toward fellow businesses, as well, especially during the economic turmoil of the coronavirus pandemic.

John Kalil, owner of advertising magazine OC Local, wasn’t sure if they would mail the magazine due to so many client closures, so he said he asked if Andersen would want to run a cover of Veteran Air with an encouraging community message. Andersen didn’t stop there — he went to every restaurant featured in the magazine and bought at least $250 worth of gift cards from each. He passed them out to his customers and community at no charge.

That same year, Elizabeth Frazier posted on Facebook that she was hosting a Thanksgiving drive-thru at her Villa Park home for people needing a dinner, and a stranger reached out to ask how he could help. (No surprise, it was Andersen.) The tradition has continued ever since.

“Every single year, he would reach out and ask me for a shopping list and buy hundreds of dollars of food, if not thousands of dollars of food. Last year, we fed 400 people,” Frazier said. “He didn’t ask for anything in return. He almost didn’t want thanks. Because he’s just like, ‘This is what we do for each other. We show up.’”

Nonprofit founder Cindy Furton De Mint recalled Andersen being proactive when it came to getting involved. She started Brothers on a Quest to raise awareness for ataxia, a condition three out of her sons have. She recalled how Andersen not only showed up to her foundation’s events, but was always a platinum sponsor of the National Ataxia Foundation’s annual walk.

“Mike always made sure that besides money, that the team came. We had a table, he’d bring one of his cool trucks that the kids would climb in and out of. He was completely hands on,” De Mint said. “Everything he did was a labor of love.”

Community members recall Andersen as a proud veteran who never passed up an opportunity to support his own. Often sporting combat boots and military pants, Andersen’s military origins were heard through every “No, sir” and “Yes, ma’am.”

Mike Andersen, fifth from right in the large hat, at the dedication ceremony for the Prado Dam Bicentennial Mural near Corona on Friday, June 2, 2023. Andersen and his Veteran Air gave a key donation. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

It seemed almost inevitable that he’d get involved with the Prado Dam mural restoration – painted in 1976 by high school students commemorating 200 years of freedom, the mural had significantly degraded. Andersen donated $40,000 toward the painting effort completed earlier this year after consulting with his Veteran Air team.

A tight-knit team at Veteran Air was a priority, coworkers said. It had to be with its numerous “operations,” which required plenty of coordination and teamwork.

One of his biggest endeavors was Operation Water Drop, which Andersen launched during Texas’ historic freeze in 2021. When Andersen read about the power crisis, he organized a group to pack up heaps of supplies and made the road trip to deliver it all. Touched by the connections he made, he made a joke on the drive home about starting Veteran Air Texas.

Sure enough, they opened a branch a few months later.

“He really saw his team as family,” Velez said. “Everyone looks out for each other, and Mike is what allowed our team members to become that way, because he led by example.”

Veteran Air announced Andersen’s passing on Facebook, which was quickly flooded with stories of his good deeds and positive impact.

“I never spoke to anybody that had a bad thing to say about him,” Frazier said. “Just being around Mike made you want to be a better human, and I saw that with all his workers and all the people that he was surrounded with.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Fed chair: Slower growth may be needed to conquer high inflation

• October 19, 2023

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that inflation remains too high and that bringing it down to the Fed’s target level will likely require a slower-growing economy and job market.

Powell noted that inflation has cooled significantly from a year ago. But he cautioned that the economy is growing faster than the Fed had expected and could continue to keep inflation elevated. As a result, the Fed chair said, it’s not yet clear whether inflation is on a steady path back to the Fed’s 2% target.

“We certainly have a very resilient economy on our hands,” Powell said in a discussion at the Economic Club of New York. “Many forecasts called for the U.S. economy to be in recession this year. Not only has that not happened; growth is now running for this year above its longer-run trend. So that’s been a surprise.”

Powell’s comments echoed speeches from other Fed officials this week, which have underscored that they are grappling with an unusual and unexpected development: Inflation is slowing even while economic growth and hiring have been robust.

In its drive to tame inflation, the Fed has raised its key rate 11 times since March 2022 to about 5.4%, its highest level in 22 years. Though inflation has tumbled from its peaks of last year, it still has further to go to reach the Fed’s 2% inflation target . Doing so is likely to require slower economic growth.

If the healthy economic expansion and hiring endure, Powell said Thursday, the central bank might have to further raise its benchmark rate. The Fed’s long series of rate hikes have raised the costs of auto and home loans, credit card borrowing and business loans, imposing financial burdens on many households and companies.

At the same time, Powell suggested that the Fed might not have to impose another hike, at least not soon, because of a spike in longer-term bond rates. The rise in long-term rates has contributed to a jump in the average cost of a 30-year mortgage to nearly 8%. Higher long-term rates, coming on top of the Fed’s own short-term rate hikes, could help slow growth and cool inflation, thereby easing pressure on the Fed to hike further.

“That’s exactly what we’re trying to achieve,” Powell said.

“At the margin,” he said, “it could” mean the Fed won’t have to further raise rates.

Yet Powell also said there was no evidence that interest rates are too high right now, a signal that he thinks the Fed could raise them further without causing a recession in the process.

Asked Thursday about the economy’s resilience despite the rate hikes, Powell suggested that interest rates simply “haven’t been high enough for long enough.” Many economists expect that the Fed, even if it doesn’t raise its rate again, will keep them high for an extended period.

Last month, Fed officials predicted that they would impose one more rate hike before the end of the year. Economists and Wall Street traders expect the central bank to leave rates unchanged when it next meets in about two weeks.

Several recent economic reports have suggested that the economy is still growing robustly and that inflation could remain persistently elevated.

In September, hiring was much greater than had been expected, with the unemployment rate staying near a half-century low. Strong hiring typically empowers workers to demand higher wages, which, in turn, can worsen inflation if their employers pass on the higher labor costs by raising their prices.

Yet so far, Powell noted that wage growth has slowed. Other measures of the job market are also cooling, a trend that could keep inflation contained. Indeed, even with solid economic growth, inflation has largely decelerated: The Fed’s preferred measure of price changes eased to 3.5% in September compared with 12 months earlier, down sharply from a year-over-year peak of 7% in June 2022.

On Wednesday, Christopher Waller, an influential member of the Fed’s governing board, suggested that the slowdown in inflation even as the economy has remained healthy is “great news” but also “a little too good to be true.”

​ Orange County Register 

Providence St. Joseph workers to strike beginning Monday

• October 19, 2023

An estimated 700 healthcare workers at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center plan to launch a five-day strike Monday, Oct. 23, claiming severe understaffing and high turnover are impacting patient care.

The lab techs, phlebotomists, patient transporters and others at the Burbank hospital are represented by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West. They allege bad faith bargaining by hospital management and say St. Joseph has engaged in illegal tactics aimed at silencing workers.

Their labor contract expired in August and their last bargaining session was Oct. 13 — the same day the union issued a 10-day strike notice.

A nursing assistant who recently worked in the hospital’s understaffed telemetry unit said, “one patient was halfway down the hall before we could respond, and some patients will be soiled for way too long before we can get to them.” (Photo courtesy of SEIU-UHW)

Christian Ayon, a lead surgical technician at St. Joseph, said employees are being intimidated and threatened for wanting to improve conditions at the hospital.

“This used to be a premier hospital, but we are struggling to give the quality care our patients deserve as we watch staff leave and positions go unfilled,” Ayon said. “We fight not just for ourselves but for our patients that depend on us.”

Employees picketed the 466-bed facility on August 22, citing the same issues.

Replacement workers contracted

In a statement issued Thursday, St. Joseph didn’t address staffing concerns. But management said the hospital is “well prepared” for the strike and has contracted replacement workers for members of the bargaining unit who choose to strike.

“(We) firmly believes that strikes don’t settle contracts,” the statement said. “They delay them and keep our caregivers from getting the pay and benefits enhancements they deserve.”

St. Joseph said the hospital’s bargaining team has proposed significant contract enhancements, including a 24% hike in wages over a three-year contract. But the union, management said, has offered “unrealistic counterproposals.”

The two sides plan to return to the bargaining table after the strike ends.

St. Joseph nursing assistant Alexis Schoffstall plans to participate in next week’s walkout. She said staffing shortages have left her overworked.

“Just yesterday I was floated to a telemetry unit where patients’ hearts are monitored,” the 36-year-old North Hollywood resident said. “I was the only nursing assistant on the unit with 22 patients. Normally, we should have two nursing assistants there, so I was doing the work of two people.”

When that happens, patient care takes a hit, Schoffstall said.

“There are bed alarms going off,” she said. “One patient was halfway down the hall before we could respond, and some patients will be soiled for way too long before we can get to them.”

Widespread staffing concerns

Southern California healthcare workers have staged a host of rallies, pickets and strikes in recents months, primarily over concerns of inadequate staffing, high turnover and low wages.

Unions representing 75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers who recently held a three-day strike over wages and staffing shortages reached a tentative agreement with the healthcare giant last week.

That walkout impacted Kaiser operations in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

And an estimated 1,800 workers held a five-day strike earlier this month at four Prime Healthcare hospitals over chronic understaffing. The facilities included St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood,  Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, Garden Grove Hospital Medical Center and Encino Hospital Medical Center.

At St. Francis, 600 registered represented by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals also joined in for their own week-long strike.

Healthcare workers at Prime Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood held a noon protest in August, claiming short-staffing has left them overworked and undermined patient care.

​ Orange County Register