Nurses to Walk off the Job Thursday

More than 23,000 nurses from Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente hospitals throughout Northern California plan to walk off the job Thursday in the nation’s largest such action to date.

The one-day strike by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United involves 34 hospitals, including those in South San Francisco, Redwood City, Burlingame and San Mateo.

The action stems from stalled negotiations between the Sacramento-based Sutter Health and registered nurses, represented by the California Nurses Association (CNA). Kaiser nurses are joining the strike.

Sutter responded with a five-day lockout,  cancelling a bargaining session scheduled for Monday.

A Sutter spokeswoman said the hospitals pay competitive wages, but has an obligation to keep health care costs down for patients.

Karen Garner said the nurses are making "a sensational statement" and not presenting the "full picture."

The nurses say management aims to cut their influence on behalf patient care and punish them for failing to meet budget-based goals.

They say Sutter has already cut acute care rehabilitation, dialysis and pediatric care, and plans to shutter the gastrointestinal lab at Mills-Peninsula.

“It is very clear the decisions are made by corporate,” said Mills-Peninsula intensive care nurse Janelle Morgan. “But things that look good on paper impact patient care. They want to cut down the number of nurses aides, which means there are fewer people to answer call lights, feed patients, walk them.”

The nurses are asking that staffing committees include at least one bedside nurse.

“Sutter doesn’t want to hear that as nurses, we have an obligation to be patient advocates,” said Sharon Tobin, an intensive care nurse who has spent 20 of her 25-year career at Mills-Peninsula.

She said she has seen “a gradual, slow and deliberate attack on patient care and nursing standards” over the past few years.

Sutter has brought in profits of $3.7 billion in past six years, paying its CEO nearly $4 million, and its regional executive nearly $3 million in 2009, the most recent year for which tax records are available.

“All these profits, or what they call ‘excess revenues,’ are at the expense of our community care,” Tobin said. “We will not be silenced.”

Its most recent proposal would slash healthcare coverage, vacations, holiday pay, and education leave for all RNs who work less than 30 hours a week, the nurses say.

A website advertising for substitute nurses during a coming strike action offered $60 an hour, $90 for overtime pay and a bonus of $2,500 for working all five days.

“It would have been better for these nurses to stay in their home states and fight for better patient care,” Tobin said. “We got better protections in California because we stand up for it.”

Nurses will walk off the job at 7 a.m. at Kaiser South San Francisco, Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame, Mills Health Center San Mateo, and Kaiser Redwood City.

Bay Area-wide, nurses will also strike at Kaiser facilities in Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose; Berkeley and Oakland campuses of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center; and the independent Children's Hospital Oakland

A rally is set for 2 p.m. tomorrow at Mills Health Center in Burlingame.