National Nurses United

4 N A T I O N A L N U R S E 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 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 4 NATIONAL R egistered nurses across Cali- fornia and also in Washington, D.C. went on two-day and one- day strikes, respectively, in November to protest their employers' disregard of the staffing and resources nurses need to provide safe patient care. National Nurses United's national Day of Action on Ebola concurred with the strikes, and RNs widely viewed their workplaces' lack of preparedness for Ebola to be emblematic of managements' greater concern for their bottom lines than for the safety and welfare of employees, patients, and the community. Some 18,000 registered nurses and nurse practitioners for 86 Kaiser Permanente facilities across Northern and Central Cali- fornia walked off their jobs for two days starting Nov. 11, as did hundreds of nurses at Watsonville Community Hospital, which is owned by Community Health Systems (CHS), and Sutter Tracy Community Hospi- tal, an affiliate of Sutter Health. About 400 RNs at Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C. struck for one day on Nov. 12. Kaiser is one of the largest healthcare corporations in the country, making more than $2.1 billion in profits in 2013 and on track to top $4 billion this year, as is CHS, which owns and operates more hospitals than any other chain in the country. RNs at all of the facilities have open contracts or are trying to win first contracts with their employers. Despite Kaiser's wealth, the chain over the past several years has been systematically restructuring its facilities, staff, and services in such as way as to eliminate registered nurses, close services and units (sometimes almost entire hospitals), push patients out of the hospital faster or deny them admission in the first place, and ultimately shift care of mem - bers from hospital to home and outpatient settings—all moves which are cheaper for Kaiser but extremely dangerous, say nurses, for patients. Kaiser notoriously closed down an inpatient pediatrics unit in Hayward, Calif. without opening a substitute at its replace- ment hospital in San Leandro; months later, a 6-month infant whose parents sought help from the Hayward emergency room died after not getting timely pediatric care. In Manteca, Calif., nurses have protested the closure of entire units of their hospital and relocation NEWS BRIEFS Massive RN strikes across California and in DC over cuts to patient care, lack of Ebola preparedness

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