Registered nurses working at Kaiser Permanente facilities from across California will hold a protest on Friday, Sept. 19, outside an event at Flamingo Resort in Santa Rosa, Calif., where a Kaiser CEO is scheduled to speak. Kaiser nurses are represented by California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU).

Nurses working at Kaiser facilities are protesting recent major moves from the health care giant, including lay-offs in San Rafael and the suspension of some gender-affirming care services for youth patients. Nurses are protesting outside the Sept. 19 event as Dr. Maria Ansari, CEO and executive director of the Permanente Medical Group overseeing northern California operations, is scheduled to speak inside during an event.

Who: Kaiser Permanente nurses
What: Protest for safe staffing and reinstating gender-affirming care
When: Friday, Sept. 19, 8-9 a.m.
Where: Flamingo Resort and Spa, 2777 4th St., Santa Rosa, Calif.; event space entrance on Long Drive

“It’s rich that Kaiser executives would be celebrating themselves while laying off nurses,” said Colleen Gibbons, RN in the medical-surgical unit and chief nurse representative at Kaiser’s San Rafael Medical Center. “We’re going to be there to let them know nurses won’t sit by while patient care is endangered like this.”

“We’re worried that cutting services for transgender youth was a warning sign of what’s to come,” said Jennifer Cass, RN in the ophthalmology unit at San Rafael. “If evidence-based care is no longer Kaiser’s standard, nurses will take action to let our patients know we stand with them.”

CNA/NNU represents 25,000 registered nurses at Kaiser facilities across the state of California.

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.