More than 6,400 registered nurses are slated to strike next week at eight California hospitals and one Illinois hospital over their concerns about staffing and patient care.
All of the nurses are part of National Nurses United and its California affiliate, the California Nurses Association.
In the Los Angeles area, a two-day strike is set for April 30 and May 1 at Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente's Los Angeles Medical Center. There is also a one-day strike scheduled for May 1 at Providence Health and Services hospitals in Santa Monica and Torrance, according to National Nurses United.
In Northern California, RNs will strike for one day April 30 at five Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health facilities. Sutter nurses will also conduct an informational picket that day at California Pacific Medical Center’s Pacific facility in San Francisco where CNA represents 750 RNs, according to National Nurses United.
Sutter spokesman Bill Gleeson said in a statement that the labor union "follows a PR playbook" and "pick themes they believe will resonate with the public — even if the claims are false," according to a Sacramento Business Journal report.
Mr. Gleeson added that Sutter hospitals "meet or exceed the state's safe staffing ratios and routinely rank in the top quartile for quality."
RNs at the University of Chicago Medical Center are also slated to strike for one day, April 30.
"Across the country, nurses are unified in insisting that hospitals improve RN staffing which far too often is compromising patient safety and other patient protections," NNU Co-President Karen Higgins, RN, said in a statement. According to NNU, other issues at many of the hospitals include hospital demands for cuts in nurses' healthcare and other policies "that hurt the retention of experienced RNs."
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