A union protest planned for Wednesday at Mercy Medical Center in Redding has been canceled. The picket line was going to be one of 27 coordinated demonstrations at Dignity Health facilities around California. The union, SEIU-UHW, represents nearly 15,000 Dignity Health employees statewide, and 760 at Mercy in Redding. Dignity Health is about to merge into a $28 Billion corporation called “Catholic Health Initiatives”and the union had said they were concerned because in the last fiscal year the corporation eliminated nearly 3,000 full time jobs at its hospitals nationwide. The union’s current contract expires April First and union leaders had hoped to apply some pressure in order to get a new contract prior to the merger. The pressure apparently worked without any picketing necessary because Dignity Health has requested a meeting with union negotiators for this Friday. .