Nurses decry excessive CEO salaries as services decline. California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, January 20, 2012 Oakland - Kaiser Permanente registered nurses issued a sympathy strike notice Thursday, for January 31, the California Nurses Association announced today. The sympathy strike is the second walk-out that the 17,000 Northern California Kaiser CNA RNs and nurse practitioners will participate in support of their co-workers and the community. On September 22, thousands of Northern California nurses took to picket lines at more than 30 hospitals to support their colleagues. ... Kaiser

Join 4,000 County Workers to Protest Cuts Affecting Most Vulnerable. Public Employment Relations Board finds County has not acted in good faith; cites numerous “unfair practices” in nurse negotiations.
California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, January 20, 2012 Fresno - The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United announced today its submission of a three-day strike notice to the county. The notice allows for a strike to commence on Monday, January 23, starting at 7 AM. ... Fresno

Actions in Sacramento, Los Angeles to Challenge Insurance Giants, Seek Passage of Bill to Extend Guaranteed Care to All Californians. 
California Nurses Association, January 6, 2012 A broad coalition of activists – including registered nurses, medical students, seniors, physicians, members of the Occupy movement, and the recently formed Campaign for a Health California (CHC) – will hold marches and rallies Monday, January 9 in Sacramento and Los Angeles to step up the campaign to extend guaranteed healthcare coverage to all Californians. ... Nurses

Rafael Azul & Kim Saito, World Socialist Web Site, December 24, 2011 Some 6,000 nurses in California went on a one-day strike on Thursday December 22. The nurses are demanding decent staffing levels, health benefits, and sick leave. The protest affected eight for-profit San Francisco Hospitals, all owned by Sutter Corporation, and the Long Beach Children’s Hospital complex in Southern California, also privately operated but not by Sutter. At the Long Beach protest, nurses were also demanding lifting teams for heavy patients and regular breaks. ... California

Associated Press, December 23, 2011 Nurses in California went on strike Thursday - some for the second time in three months - in the latest dispute between nurses and hospital management over health care costs, staffing levels and sick leave. The California Nurses Association - the union behind the one-day walkout - expected 6,000 nurses at nine hospitals in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas to participate, although a hospital official said a "significant number" of nurses had crossed the picket lines. ... California

Hundreds of nurses picket Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital over failed contract talks and staffing issues. Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times, December 23, 2011 Hundreds of nurses from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital staged a one-day strike Thursday over failed contract negotiations and staffing issues.

 Equipped with bullhorns and whistles, the nurses stood by the main entrance of the hospitals on Patterson Street and Atlantic Avenue. Many waved picket signs that read: "If nurses are outside, something's wrong inside" and "Safe staffing at all times."

 ... Nurses

Sarah Frier & Danielle Kucera, Bloomberg, December 22, 2011 Efren Garza and Margie Keenan, two California nurses with 70 years of combined experience, said they’re skipping work today for the sake of their patients. Garza, employed in Berkeley, said if his bosses eliminate sick leave, nurses will come to work ill. Keenan, who has been at the same Long Beach hospital for 38 years, said limiting staff size and time off may cause overworked nurses to make potentially deadly medical mistakes. ... Nurses in New York City are pushing the same message and will walk out at Saint Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center on January 3. ... California

Tula Connell, AFL-CIO, December 22, 2011 Concerned over the erosion of quality of care and cuts to patient protections, some 6,000 nurses have been on a one-day strike today at California’s second largest private hospital and at one of its most profitable corporate hospital chains. The members of National Nurses United include 2,000 RNs at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach, and 4,000 RNs who work at nine Bay Area facilities that are part of the Sutter Health corporation. Michele Ross and Elsa Matos-Leal, both RNs, summed up why they took today’s action ... 6,000

Michael Martinez & Sara Weisfeldt, CNN, December 22, 2011 Long Beach - About 6,000 California nurses staged a one-day strike at several hospitals Thursday, protesting what they called an "erosion of quality of care and cuts to patient protections," National Nurses United said. In Long Beach, about 2,000 nurses staged a one-day strike at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital, but nurses were later told that they will be locked out of their jobs for four days because replacements had to be hired in a five-day block, nurses told CNN. The Long Beach registered nurses are in a dispute with management over RN-to-patient staffing levels ... 6,000

Walkout to Target Bay Area Sutter Hospitals, Long Beach Memorial.
 Nurses Cite Patient Care Issues, Cuts in Healthcare Coverage. National Nurses United, December 22, 2011 Voicing concern over the erosion of quality of care and cuts to patient protections, nurses are on a one-day strike today at California’s second largest private hospital and one of its most profitable corporate hospital chains. The strike affects 2,000 RNs at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach, and 4,000 RNs who work at nine Bay Area facilities that are part of the Sutter Health corporation. ... 6,000

Michele Ross & Elsa Matos-Leal, Oakland Tribune, December 21, 2011 While most people are decorating trees and planning holiday parties, Sutter's registered nurses have been sitting at bargaining tables around the Bay Area. Despite the pull of the holiday season, we are fighting for health care - both protecting the health of our patients by holding the line on patient-care protections Sutter wants to eradicate and stopping unwarranted cuts to health care coverage for our families. Nurses would much rather be at the bedside. We did, in fact, offer to call off Thursday's strike if Sutter withdrew its disgraceful demands ... Nurses

Associated Press, December 21, 2011 Oakland - Thousands of nurses at nine San Francisco Bay area hospitals are planning a one-day strike over contract talks with Sutter Health. Union officials say 4,000 nurses will walk off the job at 7 AM Thursday unless a deal is reached with Sutter. The strike would affect Alta Bates, Summit and Herrick campuses in Berkeley and Oakland, Eden Medical Center facilities in Castro Valley and San Leandro, Sutter Delta in Antioch, Sutter Solano in Vallejo and the Mills-Peninsula hospital campuses in Burlingame and San Mateo. ... Thousands

Rallies at Alta Bates Berkeley campus at noon and at the Summit Oakland campus at 4 PM. Angela Woodall, Oakland Tribune, December 21, 2011 Several thousand registered nurses are planning a one-day walkout Thursday at nine Bay Area hospitals unless union negotiations with the Sutter Health parent company can resolve disagreements over proposed concessions. If the two sides cannot agree, the strike is set to begin at 7 AM and end 24 hours later on Friday morning. But Alta Bates Summit Medical Center - one of the hospitals in the Sutter Health network that is the target of the walkout - has pledged to lock out the nurses who strike. ... 4,000

Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2011 Thousands of registered nurses across California will strike for one day this week over myriad issues they say include predatory cuts that affect patient care, unsuccessful contract negotiations and rising healthcare premium costs. The strikes will take place Thursday and will involve 2,000 nurses from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital, and 4,000 nurses from eight Bay Area hospitals owned by Sutter Health ... 6,000

Chris Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, November 18, 2011 Chuck Idelson, a spokesman for the Oakland-based California Nurses Association, didn't directly respond to the substance of Kaiser Permanente's lawsuit in US District Court. But he told the San Francisco Business Times late Friday that Kaiser allegedly is taking the step as part of plans for an East Coast expansion move, to New York, New Jersey and the Washington, DC, area (where it already has a regional unit). "Kaiser has dreams of empire," Idelson said, and wants to fund its expansion on the backs of workers. He said that is CNA's only statement on the suit. ... Kaiser