Married couples are among the 127 unskilled linen workers who could be retrenched after their employer was sold to Spotless, the union says.
The Health Workers Union says the workers walked off the job on Tuesday morning after being told that their contracts expiring June 30 would not be renewed following the sale of Cabrini Linen Service.
Cabrini Health says the sale of the linen business was made following "careful consideration and planning".
"Our staff at CLS have done a great job in competing successfully, but our view is that we will increasingly struggle to compete with the bigger players," chief executive Michael Walsh says in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the Catholic health service provider told AAP the first point of order would be doing everything they could to get the workers new jobs.
But HWU secretary Diana Asmar says promises of work elsewhere "unfortunately" won't work.
"It's not as simple - when you work in linen care - to find a job immediately, she told AAP on Tuesday.
She says the union was not consulted before the company's 11am announcement to workers on Tuesday.
"This is really evil, this is not a Catholic organisation at all," she said.
"Cabrini Health, being a Catholic organisation, should have had compassion and should have had the integrity to speak to the staff and consult with them and making sure Spotless had a transfer of business."
Spotless has been contacted for comment.
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