Staff from Shasta Regional Medical Center to strike over unsafe staffing, patient safety concerns

Nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, Calif., have given notice to their employer, Prime Healthcare, that they will hold a strike for one day.  Redding nurses will strike on Feb. 19, amidst a week of strikes at Prime facilities in Nevada and California. Nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional are represented by California Nurses Association/Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union (CNA/CHEU), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), the country’s largest nurses union.

Shasta Regional staff have been in negotiations since August, 2025 for a new contract with little to no movement on key issues. The staff urges management to agree to a contract that provides safe staffing and a commitment to practices that recruit and retain workers. 

Who: Registered nurses and health care workers
What: One-day strike for safe staffing and patient safety
When: Thursday, Feb. 19, at 6 a.m. to Friday, Feb. 20, at 5:59 a.m.; rally at 12:30 p.m.
Where: Shasta Regional Medical Center, 1100 Butte St., Redding, Calif.

“Continuity of care has an important role in doing what's best for patients, especially the sickest ones,” said Michelle Gaffney, RN in the Shasta Regional intensive care unit. “Experience with providing care to a particular type of patient helps you recognize small changes before they become big problems. And getting to know your patients shows you what treatments work best for each individual person. Getting to know the hospital you work in also helps patients.   

"That experience with where and how to access necessary resources saves precious time when patients need it the most,” Gaffney added. “This revolving door of new hiring and a rapidly crumbling foundation of experienced staff leaving because of the constant upheaval and loss of services, makes our community vulnerable to becoming a healthcare desert and forces them to seek care outside of the area.”

The same week, nurses and health care workers will strike at multiple other Prime facilities: Centinela Hospital in Los Angeles, Calif.; West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, Calif.; and Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nev.

This ten-days’ notice of their strike follows a nearly unanimous strike authorization vote on Jan. 14. Nurses and healthcare workers give at least ten days of advance notice for strikes to hospital employers to allow for alternative plans to be made for patient care.

CNA/CHEU/NNU represents 600 nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional.

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