Health care workers in Northern California strike over short staffing, COVID protocols, pay

The employees declare staffing lacks and a lack of PPE stockpiles.April 18, 2022, 9:04 PM – 5 minutes readShare to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articleMore than 8,000 nurses and healthcare employees in Northern California are planning a one-day strike Monday over staffing and other COVID-19-related concerns.The staff members of Sutter Health, a health delivery system headquartered in Sacramento, are planning to strike at 15 centers– consisting of locations in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Vallejo– in between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.According to a press release from the California Nurses Association, a labor union, the workers are protesting issues connected to staffing scarcities along with health and security defenses they say are putting both clients and staff in danger.The CNA said the nurses voted to strike in March and informed Sutter Health of the plans to picket 10 days ahead of time.” We have actually attempted repeatedly to attend to the persistent and widespread problem of brief staffing that triggers delays in care and potentially puts clients at threat, however hospital administrators continue to overlook us,” Amy Erb, an important care nurse who works for Sutters California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, said in a statement.The statement continued, “We have a moral and legal obligation to promote for our patients. We advocate for them at the bedside, at the bargaining table, and if we need to, on the strike line.” People wait in a observation area after receiving a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a Sutter Health vaccination website in Sacramento, Calif., on Feb. 4, 2021. Furthermore, the employees declared Sutter Health did not offer its workers with sufficient personal protective equipment at the beginning of the pandemic and has actually declined to buy stockpiles, disregarding Californias PPE stockpile law.Staff also stated the health network has actually not been performing contact tracing after favorable cases are reported among staff.In addition to getting Sutter to address their concerns, the workers are attempting to negotiate greater incomes. Sutter Health informed KCRA 3 in a statement it does use pandemic defenses and competitive salaries.” They withstand having actually nurses straight included in preparation and implementation of policies that impact all of us during a pandemic,” Renee Water, a neurotrauma extensive care unit nurse at Sutter, said in a declaration. “A fair contract is required to maintain skilled nurses, have enough staffing and training, and ensure we have the resources we require to provide efficient and safe look after our clients” The union stated nurses and other health care workers have been negotiating with Sutter for a new agreement given that June 2021 with little advancement.Sutter Health nurses and health care workers participate in a one day strike outside of the California Pacific Medical Center Van Ness Campus, April 18, 2022, in San Francisco. Over 8,000 signed up nurses and healthcare workers with Sutter Health are getting involved in a one day strike at 15 facilities across Northern California to object Sutter Healths refusal to acknowledge proposals concerning safe staffing, health and security protections.Sutter sent a statement to ABC News, stating it was disappointed by the strike and referring to it as “disruptive” and “costly.”” By progressing with todays disruptive and expensive strike, union leadership has actually made it clear they want to put politics above clients and the nurses they represent– despite the intervention of federal arbitrators and our desire to deal in good faith while under threat of a strike,” the health network said.The declaration continued, “Our attention is on supplying safe, high-quality care to the neighborhoods and patients were honored to serve. We are confident in our capability to manage this disturbance. We are hopeful CNA shares our desire to reach a contract and enable our nurses to turn their focus back to the patients the union has actually asked them to ignore.”