Community Corner
Locked Out or Not?
Nurses say Sutter Health has retaliated against them for yesterday's action, but the company says it had no choice but to bar them from working until Tuesday.
A one-day strike at Bay Area hospitals is over today, but participating nurses at Sutter hospitals have been told they cannot report back to work before Tuesday, officials said today.
That’s a lockout, according to the California Nurses Association, which represents staff at Mills-Peninsula and Mills Health Center.
Hospital officials denied the charge, saying they were forced to sign five-day contracts with agencies that provided non-union replacement workers.
Find out what's happening in South San Franciscowith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“That’s not true,” said registered nurse Liz Jacobs, a spokeswoman for the CNA. “Somehow, Kaiser was able to find replacement workers for one day. Today, all the Kaiser nurses are back at work.”
Thursday's work stoppage involved an estimated 23,000 nurses at Sutter Health hospitals, Children's Hospital in Oakland and Kaiser Permanente. Contract negotiations are underway at many of the sites, including those in the Sutter chain, but Kaiser nurses, including those at Kaiser South San Francisco and Redwood City, walked out in sympathy.
Find out what's happening in South San Franciscowith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"It's not a lockout, a lockout means that no members of a union are allowed into the hospital," said Erin Goldsmith, a spokeswoman for Children's Hospital. Union nurses who "chose to cross the picket lines are allowed into the hospital."
Union spokesman Charles Idelson said the willingness of the hospitals to spend large amounts of money on contract nurses belied their claims in contract negotiations that they needed to save money.
"It's obviously an unwarranted and unnecessary lockout," he said. "It certainly reflects the mentality of Sutter and Children's. It's indicative of the way Sutter has treated their communities and their employees and patients for years."
Unions have said the hospitals are seeking to roll back RN rights and limit nurses' input regarding patient care, in addition to cutting benefits.
Sutter hospitals have countered by noting that nurses in the chain are "among the highest compensated in the country," with the average nurse there earning a $136,000 salary. Nurses say that is not an average but a top salary.
“It’s not about the money,” Jacobs said. “It’s important for the public to understand nurses have to hold the line.”
-- Rebecca Rosen Lum with Bay City News Service
