Union nurses say layoffs of critical support staff will jeopardize patient care

Registered nurses at Glendale Memorial Hospital in Glendale, Calif. will hold an informational picket on Monday, Aug. 24, to condemn the layoffs of critical support staff, which will jeopardize patient care, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU).

CommonSpirit plans to lay off monitor technicians in the intensive care unit (ICU) and the unit clerks in medical-surgical and telemetry units. Unit support staff provides critical work to keep the operations running smoothly and allow nurses to focus on their direct patient care responsibilities without interruptions. 

“Patients in our unit are already critically ill,” said Michelle Lasala, RN in the ICU unit at Glendale Memorial Hospital. “Having a monitor technician allows me to focus on my patients without having to split my attention to monitor rhythms, answer phones, or coordinate with other units. Our monitor techs provide a vital resource that cannot only be measured by metrics or dollars but in timely interventions and lives saved.”

Who: Registered nurses at Glendale Memorial Hospital
What: Informational picket for patient safety and safe staffing
When: Monday, August 24, 2026, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Where: Glendale Memorial Hospital, 1420 S. Central Ave., Glendale, Calif., corner of Central and Los Feliz

Nurses have raised their concerns to hospital management, but have been told that these cuts are to improve efficiency and productivity, but this decision ignores the impact of the cuts on patient health and safety and goes against CommonSpirit’s mission of providing “compassionate care.” On Aug. 3, CommonSpirit nurses delivered a petition to their employer in Los Angeles signed by more than 5,000 nurses across the state opposing the cuts, urging CommonSpirit to rescind the layoffs. In an Aug. 18 meeting, hospital management said that they will move forward despite the concerns raised by frontline staff as “not every scenario can be accounted for” and moving forward concerns can be addressed by escalating through chain of command.

“Nurses are already being asked to do more and more with fewer resources,” said Erin Connor, RN in the telemetry unit at Glendale Memorial Hospital. “Removing our unit clerk, who provides essential support, will increase the workload on bedside nurses. Nurses are already feeling moral distress and stretched too thin. We urge Glendale management to put patients before profits and do the right thing: Rescind the layoffs.”

“As a nurse, I need to be able to closely monitor my patients and meet their direct-care needs,” said Heather Jun, RN in the telemetry unit at Glendale Memorial Hospital. “Without the support of my unit clerk to help coordinate communication, assist with admissions and discharges, and support our unit, my attention will be pulled from direct patient care to performing administrative tasks, creating delays in care or missing vital information. This is not putting our community or patients first.”

Nurses know that CommonSpirit has the resources to address the hospital’s needs. According to its tax filings, from 2020 to 2024, the top 10 CommonSpirit executives were paid in excess of $310.5 million. Its CEO took home a compensation package worth more than $14 million for fiscal year 2025.

CNA represents about 550 registered nurses at Glendale Memorial Hospital and more than 17,000 CommonSpirit RNs in California, Nevada, Colorado, and Texas.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with more than 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout California and more than 225,000 RNs nationwide.