6,000 nurses strike in California
In Long Beach, about 2,000 nurses staged a one-day strike at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital, but nurses were later told that they will be locked out of their jobs for four days because replacements had to be hired in a five-day block, nurses told CNN.
The Long Beach registered nurses are in a dispute with management over RN-to-patient staffing levels and safe patient lift policies to prevent accidents and injuries, the union said.
The nurses are also objecting to hospital demands for increases in health care premiums, which they claimed would cost the nurses about $3,000 more in out-of-pocket premiums -- which the hospitals disputed.
Officials with Memorial Care Health System, which owns both Long Beach facilities, said that more than 30% of the 2,000 nurses decided not to participate in the strike.
"Over 30% of the nurses chose to cross the picket line," said Dr. Susan Melvin, associate chief medical officer of the Long Beach Memorial. "Every unit is open and fully functioning. From a physician perspective, they feel their patient care needs are being well met," Melvin told CNN.
Myra Gregorian, vice president of human resources at both hospitals, said the facilities were meeting state requirements on nurse-to-patient staffing.
"We comply with the law and compensate appropriately and it rarely happens," Gregorian said. "As a California hospital, we have state-mandated ratios, and we comply with state levels."
The two Long Beach hospitals offered the California Nurses Association a three-year contract that included at least 3% raises over each year, and Gregorian told CNN the union's claims about $3,000 premium increases were "not true."
The average premium increase is $4.76 per paycheck, which occurs every two weeks, and the maximum premium increase is $18.28 per paycheck, Gregorian told CNN.
The last contract expired September 30, Gregorian said.
Meanwhile, in the San Francisco Bay area, about 4,000 nurses were striking at nine facilities that are part of the Sutter Health corporation, the union said. The nurses are protesting what they described as "some 150 demands for major contract concessions in patient protections and health coverage for the RNs and their families," according to the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United.
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