Hospital Nurses Plan to Strike

Registered nurses at in San Rafael will join around 23,000 RNs throughout the state in a one-day strike for employment rights beginning at 7 a.m. Thursday

California Nurses Association officials said nurses would hold a walkout at 34 and California hospitals to protest a range of issues, including restrictions on nurses' rights to speak out for patients and cuts in nurses' and other hospital workers' health care and retiree coverage.

Although Kaiser has reported over $5.7 billion in profits for the last two and a half years, administrators continue to reduce workers healthcare coverage and retirement benefits and ignore a shortage of staffing, which can harm patients, according to the National Union of Healthcare Workers.

The strike will affect the Bay Area's biggest hospital chains, Sutter and Kaiser, plus Children's Hospital Oakland.

Sutter Health, which runs Novato Community Hospital, has a note on its site saying it has “taken steps to ensure quality patient care will not be disrupted. Qualified replacement registered nurses will be on hand during the strike and transition period. The replacement agencies require a minimum number of days.”

Since 2005, Sutter has amassed more than $3.7 billion in net income and $11.6 billion in assets, according to National Nurses United’s website. The union said almost $98 million in salary to its 18 top executives from 2005 to 2009, an average of $1.1 million per year.
The union has proposed contract demands include a doubling the pension benefit costs made by the employer, free healthcare for life upon retirement and no wage cuts.

Sutter officials say those demands would increase costs at Sutter hospitals by tens of millions of dollars each year. The Novato nurses  receive an average salary of $136,000 per year and pension benefits averaging $84,000 per year after retirement, according to Sutter Health. Most have an option of 100 percent employer-paid health benefits/or receives low-cost health benefits, the medical group said.

A spokeswoman for Novato Community Hospital did not return calls Wednesday. A receptionist said negotiating teams were in meetings.

Picketing is slated to begin at 7 a.m. Thursday and will continue throughout the day, with the largest turnout expected at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland and Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame.

Speaking on behalf of many striking nurses in a statement, Children's Hospital RN Martha Kuhl said these hospitals "are taking advantage of the economic times and trying to roll back improvements we have won over many years."

Meanwhile, Children's Hospital officials called the strike "irresponsible and misguided" and pledged to keep the hospital open during the planned walkout by contracting with replacement nurses.

Many of the RNs set to take part in the strike are in the midst of ongoing contract negotiations with their employers, hospital officials said.

"The CNA leadership is out-of-touch with changes occurring throughout the country related to wages and healthcare benefits, and out of touch with the fact that Children's (Hospital) is financially strained," said Nancy Shibata, the hospital's chief nursing officer, in a statement.

Bay City News and Brent Aisnworth contributed to this report.