Thousands of Nurses to Strike Tuesday

Unionized nurses and other health-care workers will stage a 24-hour strike tomorrow at Kaiser medical center hospitals as part of a job action at 160 Kaiser Permanente facilities statewide.

Walkouts are planned for 80 Kaiser Permanente facilities in Southern
California, including the medical centers throughout Orange County including Huntington Beach, Mission Viejo, Garden Grove, Anaheim and Irvine, said Leighton Woodhouse, a spokesman for the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which is organizing the strike.

“Chances are that patients whose appointments are delayed have already been notified,” Woodhouse said. The union gave Kaiser 10 days notice of the strike to minimize disruption to patients, he said. ``That said, it's not going to be business as usual in these facilities. The strike is going to be disruptive ... ''

Kaiser officials issued a statement saying it was implementing ``comprehensive contingency plans'' to ensure continued care and patient safety and that all facilities will remain open during any work stoppage.

``We recognize the NUHW's legal right to conduct a strike, but we believe the bargaining table is the best place to resolve differences, and regardless of any strike activity, we continue to seek meaningful dialogue and negotiate in good faith; we hope to reach an agreement soon,'' according to the company.

According to the union, the walkouts are in response to cuts in health-care and retirement benefits that Kaiser is proposing for thousands of NUHW members the firm employs statewide, including about 2,500 in Southern California.
The NUHW is also unhappy with what union officials call chronic staffing deficiencies at Kaiser facilities and excessive compensation packages given to top executives while the HMO has imposed rate increases on hundreds of thousands of California policyholders.

The NUHW, which has 4,000 members employed by Kaiser statewide, staged similar walkouts at Kaiser facilities in September.

``We expect the overwhelming majority of the folks we represent to participate,'' Woodhouse said.

According to the union, another 17,000 registered nurses with the California Nurses Association and another 650 members of the Stationary Engineers Local 39, all in Northern California, will be picketing at Kaiser medical centers in sympathy with the NUHW.

-City News Service