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Though the crowd was loud and lively, Laurie Kearns, a recovery room unit RN and nurse rep at Sequoia Hos- pital in Redwood City, was not satisfied to stand behind the police cordon and felt the protesters could make it hard- er to hold the fundraiser. When the police started to barricade the growing crowd on the south side of Pine Street, Kearns decided to step off the curb and stop traffic. Her Sequoia colleagues eventually followed suit, as did hun- dreds of others. In no time, the protes- tors had shut down Pine Street, preventing limousines and other cars from dropping off guests. Escorted by Ritz doormen, donors were forced to trudge on foot up the steep incline of Pine Street and wade through the boo- ing throng of protesters to attend the function. "It felt very good," said Kearns. "It felt like we had more control. We could take down the street and make it known it wasn't okay what Arnold was doing." Later, another group of protestors had taken over the intersection of Grant and Pine streets, trapping a Cadillac carrying George Shulz, Presi- dent Reagan's secretary of state, and his wife for about 15 minutes. Protesters were particularly eager to block Schwarzenegger himself from attending the fundraiser, but it appears the governor arrived at the hotel hours before protestors started arriving, pos- sibly for fear of running into problems entering the building. The rally was vocal, but largely peaceful. Only one protester was arrested. Another protestor was briefly handcuffed before the crowd convinced the police to let him go. By 7 p.m., the police had given up keeping traffic open in the streets sur- round the hotel and were diverting cars around the area entirely. Protesters declared the demonstration a success. The next major protest of Schwarzenegger is scheduled for May 25, with dual events in Sacramento and Los Angeles. Please contact your labor rep for details. —Staff Report C A L I F O R N I A N U R S E M A Y 2 0 0 5 5 Scripps RNs Strike About 250 RNs with Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas walked out April 14 in a one-day strike to protest their hospital's recalcitrant position on several key con- tract provisions the RNs say are needed to recruit and retain experienced nurses. The nurses have been trying to nego- tiate a first contract with the hospital since they voted to unionize with CNA in 2003. Scripps has refused to budge on several critical demands, such as requiring all RNs to join CNA, improving wages so that Scripps bridge the more than $3.50 per hour gap with area RNs, and establishing a Professional Practice Committee— a peer group that's standard in all CNA contracts. The RNs had already voted in February to reject a contract that did not meet these standards. Though the strike was 24 hours, the hospital locked out the nurses for three additional days. —Staff Report