Unionized Nurses Set To Strike at Fifteen Hospitals
More than 5,000 members of the California Nurses Association are expected to strike at 15 Northern California hospitals on Wednesday and Thursday, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
The strike would affect hospitals that are affiliated with Sutter Health and the Fremont-Rideout Health Group (Feder Ostrov, San Jose Mercury News, 10/9).
The strike follows stalled contract negotiations between CNA and the hospitals (Rosenberg, San Francisco Examiner, 10/9).
Many of the hospitals gave their final offers last week, according to a spokesperson at one of the hospitals, Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame and San Mateo (Grady, Oakland Tribune, 10/9).
Sticking points in the contract talks include writing nurse-to-patient ratios into the contracts, health care benefits and retirement security, according to nurses and union officials (Read, Oakland Tribune, 10/8).
Hospitals have hired temporary nurses during the strike, but some facilities might keep the nurses for several days afterward to lock out the striking nurses, according to the Mercury News (San Jose Mercury News, 10/9).