After Posting More Than $88 Million in Profits, UMass Memorial Medical Center Has Slashed its Nursing and Support Staff in the Last Two Years and Has Gone From Being the Best Staffed Hospital in the City to the Worst, While Also Posting Among the Lowest Rankings in the State for Quality Patient Care

National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses said today that the national election delivered an unmistakable message Tuesday: “From the Presidential race to Senate races to local ballot measures, American voters Tuesday delivered a strong message to Wall Street, billionaires and secretive corporate funded political committees – America is not for sale,” said NNU Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro.

Petaluma Valley Hospital RNs will be holding informational picketing at the two St. Joseph Health hospitals in Sonoma County in a show of support for nurses at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital (SRMH), who begin a three-day strike Saturday, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United announced today. SRMH is represented by the Staff Nurses Association.

BOSTON, Mass — Representatives from the Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United, along with State Representative Denise Garlick, RN (D-Needham) held a press conference at the State House today to brief reporters on a new law to ban the dangerous practice of mandatory overtime as an alternative to providing safe registered nurse staffing levels in the state’s acute care hospitals. The new law goes into effect on Monday, Nov. 5.

Registered nurses at seven Sutter hospitals in Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano counties will hold a one-day strike on Thursday, November 1. The walkout is in response to demands by Sutter corporate officials for sweeping reductions in patient care protections and nurses contract standards at these hospitals. The strike will involve about 3,200 RNs as well as several hundred respiratory, X-ray and other technicians. “We have been in negotiations going on 18 months and during this time hospital management has repeatedly misrepresented us as nurses and has shown a lack of respect for the hard working women and men who are the backbone of our hospital,” said Ann Gaebler, an Alta Bates RN. “As staff nurses, we have a responsibility to fight to maintain standards of care for our patients. We cannot allow the erosion to patient care that Sutter's proposed takeaways would represent.”

Leaders of the state’s leading organization of nurses will join a rally and press event for Congressional candidate Dr. Ami Bera Tuesday morning in Elk Grove. The event, which will also include national women’s right advocate Sandra Fluke and Dr. Janine Bera is expected to have a particular focus on women’s health issues.