A Message from the West Coast Pet Care Workers

We, the West Coast Pet Care Workers, work for a Veterinary Hospital in San Francisco.  Our hospital and many others like it, are owned by the multi-billion dollar corporation VCA/Mars. We organized in April of this year and we are the first private sector hospital to organize a union with the help of the International Longshoreman Wearhouse Union (ILWU).

Our union includes Veterinary Technicians, Veterinary Assistants, Technician Assistants, Client Service Representatives, and Facilities. As of June, we have been bargaining for our first contract. We are bargaining for livable wages, better benefits, safety, and training needs just to name a few. VCA has been purchasing veterinary hospitals since the mid-eighties and in January of 2017, Mars acquired VCA for approximately 9.1 Billion dollars.

Our employees are a big part of the everyday production at the hospital, the Veterinary Technicians perform many duties to assist and work alongside the Veterinarians. We are with our patients 10 hours a day to nurse and comfort them. Our client team works to ensure a stress free visit for our clients. Our facilities team ensures the hospital is maintained and clean. Our reason for organizing as a union is due to lack of management support. We are asking for livable wages, and we have a high turnover rate of employees due the fact that our hospital does not provide that.

Our hospital is not competitive and we lose employees to other Bay Area Veterinary Hospitals. We do not have solid training practices in place which is another reason that employees leave. Many people that enter this profession end up leaving due to unsustainability. We have lost 19 employees in the last 6 months, with 4 of them being Doctors. Experienced credentialed technicians are hard to find due to our wages. Our benefits package is not reflective of a multi-billion dollar company.

Most of us are paycheck to paycheck and we want the community to know that we are not being taken care of. That being said, we are here 7 days a week, 365 days a year working 10 hour shifts caring for the pets our clients trust us with. Our clients spend a lot of money on the medical care of their pets and they should be reassured that the hard-working people caring for them are cared for.

You can find out more about us on Facebook and Instagram as the West Coast Pet Care Workers. Come and join us in support and solidarity this Wednesday, December 5th for our upcoming rally! The rally starts at 5pm at 600 Alabama St. in San Francisco. We hope to see you all there!!

West Coast Pet Care Workers Rally
600 Alabama St. SF
Thursday, December 5, 2019, at 4 PM – 5:30 PM

Facebook Event Page