National Nurses United

Sutter RNs Step Up Pressure With Fourth and Fifth Strikes T CALIFORNIA o ratchet up pressure on an employer that is refusing to bargain reasonably and fairly, about 3,500 registered nurses as well as respiratory and radiology technicians working for Sutter Health hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area went on two one-day strikes June 13 and July 3. As a punitive measure, Sutter locked out nurses for an additional four days. But with more than 100 takeaways on the table at various facilities, some as basic as paid sick leave, nurses are more determined than ever to win a contract that upholds their nursing practice and economic standards. ���I woke up today with this awesome feeling and I was wondering what that feeling was,��� said Rochelle Pardue-Okimoto, a NICU RN at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley. ���I realized it���s the feeling of not giving up. Divide and conquer. That was [Sutter���s] plan. If you look out here today, they failed. All they did was piss us off.��� It was the fourth and fifth time that Sutter RNs had gone on strike within the year in response to outrageous concessions JUNE 2012 From top: RNs at Sutter Health's Mills-Peninsula Health Services rally on the strike picket line; Rochelle Pardue-Okimoto, RN rallies the crowd at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center demanded by the hospital chain during contract negotiations that have lasted nearly a year and a half. In addition to eliminating paid sick leave, Sutter has proposed takeaways such as floating RNs to units for which they have no experience or training, huge out-of-pocket increases in costs for W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G health coverage, forcing RNs to work overtime, eliminating retiree health coverage, and cutting health benefits from RNs who work fewer than 30 hours per week���among a host of other proposals. Sutter Health is supposed to be a nonprofit hospital corporation, but has posted profits of nearly $4.2 billion since 2005 and pays its CEO, Pat Fry, an annual compensation package worth more than $4.5 million. To achieve these numbers, RNs charge that Sutter is not only taking advantage of the poor economy to undermine RN contract standards but also systematically cutting services that it deems not profitable and shutting down hospitals. Sutter across Northern California has closed labor and delivery, pediatrics, skilled nursing, and psychiatric units, as well as cutting off services such as mammogram screenings and bone marrow transplants. Entire hospitals are on Sutter���s chopping block, too. Sutter has wanted to close St. Luke���s Hospital in San Francisco, though it is the only private-sector hospital serving the southern half of the city, and has slated San Leandro Hospital across the bay, which treats more than 27,000 emergency room patients every year, for closure as well. The day before the July 3 strike, a scandal erupted in San Francisco over the deal Sutter made with Mayor Ed Lee to build its new, massive Cathedral Hill medical complex. Sutter documents leaked to the press showed that it was entertaining financial scenarios that called for a variety of cost-cutting measures it had promised the city it would not undertake, such as massive layoffs of existing hospital staff in San Francisco, providing less charity care than projected, and eventually shutting down St. Luke���s Hospital even though the city and community members want it kept open. The revelations provided more ammunition for Sutter nurses, who have been charging all along that Sutter is deceptive in its bargaining. ���It is absolutely wonderful to see all these nurses here together in unity fighting for what is right and what we���ve worked all these years for,��� said Maryalice Martinez, a med-surg RN at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center. ���Don���t give up the fight. Keep fighting and supporting each other, even when they play dirty tricks on us. Just hang in there. We���ll come out the other side in good shape.��� ���Staff report N AT I O N A L N U R S E 7

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