Health care workers in California will also strike

Nurses at West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, Calif.; Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, N.V.; Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago, Ill.; and nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, Calif. gave notice to their employer Prime Healthcare that they will hold one-day strikes from Sept. 3 to Sept. 4 to protest the administration’s refusal to address deep concerns about patient care and safe staffing, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), which is an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU).

This 10-days’ notice of these four strikes covering over 2,200 nurses and health care workers follows nearly unanimous strike authorization votes. Nurses give at least 10 days of advance notice to the hospital to allow for alternative plans to be made for patient care.

Nurses and health care workers at the California and Nevada hospitals have been working without a contract since last year, making recruitment and retention difficult and directly hurting patient care. Employees are demanding that management invest in nursing and health care staff and agree to a contract that provides:

• Incentive for nurses and health care workers to stay at the bedside
• Staffing that meets the patients’ needs
• RNs’ right to advocate for their patients without fear of retaliation

RNs at Chicago’s Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital, who just unionized in June, will be striking to win a fair first contract. Since their election, management has prevented and threatened nurses on the negotiating team from discussing matters of patient care and staffing with colleagues. 

“Nurses have become overwhelmed with the number of patients we are assigned — to the point where we cannot safely assess or attend to all of the patients’ needs,” said Vanessa Moreno, RN in the telemetry unit at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital. “We have been demanding meetings with the hospital attorneys on these patient care concerns, but they keep saying they are too busy or ignore us altogether.”

[Reporters please note the different times strikes begin]

Chicago facility
Who: Registered nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital (Chicago)
What: One-day strike to address patient care concerns and to protest retaliation against nurse advocates
When: Thursday, Sept. 3, 7 a.m. CT to Friday, Sept. 4, 6:59 a.m. CT
Where: Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital, 2233 W Division Street, Chicago, IL, 60622

Reno facility
Who: Registered nurses at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center (Reno)
What: One-day strike for patient safety and a fair contract
When: Thursday, Sept. 3, 6:45 a.m. PT to Friday, Sept. 4, 6:44 a.m. PT
Where: Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center, 235 W. 6th St. Reno NV, 89503

Redding facility
Who: Registered nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional Medical Center (Redding)
What: One-day strike for patient safety and a fair contract
When: Thursday, Sept. 3, 6 a.m. PT to Friday, Sept. 4, 5:59 a.m. PT 
Where: Shasta Regional Medical Center, 1100 Butte St. Redding CA

Anaheim facility
Who: Registered nurses at West Anaheim Medical Center (Anaheim)
What: One-day strike for patient safety and a fair contract
When: Thursday, Sept. 3, 7 a.m. PT to Friday, Sept. 4, 6:59 a.m. PT
Where: West Anaheim Medical Center, 3033 W. Orange Ave., Anaheim CA

“Nurses and the care we provide are the heart and soul, the foundation, of our hospitals,” said Michelle Gaffney, an intensive care unit RN at Shasta Regional Medical Center. “In order to do our jobs well, we need safe RN staffing and we need a strong contract to not just attract but keep experienced nurses. Prime is not investing in us nurses and health care workers and actually retaliating against some of us when we speak up, so we are joining forces across the system to let them know we mean business and are willing to strike together to win better working conditions and standards.”

Most of the nurses and health care workers have already struck previously in their fight for a fair contract.

NNOC represents over 1,800 nurses and health care workers at Prime facilities in California and Nevada and about 400 nurses in Illinois.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.