LA Times: 4,000 Sutter Health nurses on strike in Bay Area

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-nurses22mar22,1,377108.story

Their union says the walkout was spurred by healthcare and pension disputes as well as conditions for patients.
From the Associated Press
March 22, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO -- About 4,000 nurses at eight Sutter Health hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area started striking Friday over a dispute about their healthcare and pension benefits and the closing of hospitals in poor areas.

The strike affects hospitals in Antioch, Berkeley, Burlingame, Castro Valley, Oakland, San Francisco, San Mateo and Vallejo.

The California Nurses Assn. union said the walkout was triggered by contract negotiations and Sutter practices that it said put patients at risk.

Sutter Health said it had met the levels of staffing, healthcare and retirement benefits the union had demanded from other hospitals.