Hospital Nurses Back to Work Following Strike and Lockout

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=10-16-07&storyID=28232

By Richard Brenneman


Staff registered nurses at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and Herrick Hospital were back at work Monday morning—three days after their two-day walkout ended.

Members of the California Nurses Association (CNA) walked out of their jobs at 13 hospitals of the Sutter Health chain and two Sacramento-area hospitals of the smaller Fremont-Rideout Health Group.

While the nurses had announced a two-day action, the Berkeley hospitals and their sister facility in Oakland, along with some other Sutter facilities guaranteed five days of work for non-union replacements, many flown in from out of state.

Other hospitals in the chain allowed striking nurses to return immediately after the two-day walkout.

More than 5,000 CNA nurses struck starting at 7 a.m. Wednesday, announcing well in advance that they were staging a two-day action.

Locked out when they attempted to return to work Friday, Berkeley RNs were finally able to report back to work Monday morning. A hospital representative told Bay City News that they had only been able to recruit replacements for the longer term.

FULL story at link.

[WeCanWorkItOut]

1. The nurses and the hospital chain--thank you for bringing up this issue.

I wish we had a better sense of the history of these things.

I'm particularly troubled over the hospital closing which was one reason behind the strike. I recall someone on the radio remarking, "Here they talked the city into selling them St. Luke's (a hospital in SF), and then they go and close it."
The closing could be a reaction to insufficient need, or a desire to keep hospital supply tight, or to the city's real estate bubble. Or all of the above. I couldn't find a good discussion.