RNs to Announce October Strike of 5,500 Nurses

Walkout Could Hit 16 Northern Calif. Hospitals

Registered nurses at up to 16 Northern California hospitals, mostly in the Bay Area, will announce plans today for a major strike in October that could involve up to 5,500 RNs at facilities operated by the Sutter Health chain and the Fremont-Rideout Health Group in Yuba City and Marysville.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee will hold a press conference in Oakland this morning where RNs from a number of the hospitals will talk about the walkout and their concerns over safe patient care practices, retirement security, and proposed reductions in nurses’ healthcare benefits. Sutter RNs are also protesting the corporation’s plans to sharply reduce patient services in San Francisco, San Leandro, and Santa Rosa.

What:           Press Conference on October Strike by 5,500 RNs
When:          Today, Friday, September 28
Time:           11 a.m.
Where:        Summit Medical Center, 
                    350 Hawthorne Ave. at Webster St., Oakland

Strike notices are being sent today to Alta Bates Summit Medical Center with facilities in Berkeley and Oakland, Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame and San Mateo, San Leandro Hospital, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Sutter Delta in Antioch, Sutter Solano in Vallejo, California Pacific Medical Center and St. Luke’s hospitals in San Francisco, Sutter Santa Rosa, Sutter Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, Sutter Novato, and Fremont-Rideout. 

Children’s Hospital Oakland RNs are concurrently in contract negotiations and may also issue a strike notice. The strike could also involve some 300 respiratory, surgery, and other technical workers at Alta Bates, Summit, and Children’s Oakland, who are members of the CNA/NNOC-affiliated Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union.

“We are deeply concerned about the quality of care and the availability of patient services in communities that have long supported Sutter hospitals,” said Jan Rodolfo, an RN at Summit and chair of the CNA/NNOC Sutter wide Facility Bargaining Council. “Inadequate staffing is a persistent problem at Sutter facilities. No one understands what staffing we need to provide safe patient care better than bedside nurses.”

“It’s notable that the same patient care issues and concerns are seen at all Sutter hospitals, which appears to reflect the corporate influence of the importance of the bottom line at the sacrifice of patient care,” said Genel Morgan, an RN in the cardiac intensive care unit at Mills-Peninsula Health Services and is a member of the CNA/NNOC nurse negotiating team.

“RNs take the possibility of a strike very seriously and Sutter nurses believe that if conditions don't improve, a strike may be the only answer,” said Jonica Brooks, an RN at CPMC and is on the CNA/NNOC nurse negotiating team. 

Watch video footage of RN's announcing the strike.