RNs at PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital to protest management’s refusal to address concerns about safe patient care, staffing, or recruitment of nurses.

Registered nurses at PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, Calif., will hold an informational picket on Thursday, March 9 to protest the administration’s refusal to address RNs’ deep concerns about patient care, persistent violations of California’s nurse-to-patient ratios law, and recruitment and retention of nurses, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU).

Nurses notified their employer on Feb. 27 that they would hold an informational picket.
Good Samaritan nurses have been in negotiations for a new contract since October 2022 with little to no movement on key issues. The RNs have been demanding that the hospital bargain a new agreement since September 2021. Their contract expired in November 2021.

PIH Health, which acquired Good Samaritan Hospital in 2019, refused to bargain a successor agreement with RNs, but in August 2022, a federal judge ruled that the hospital had bargained in bad faith and ordered the hospital to immediately resume bargaining with RNs.

“The hospital should be doing its utmost to provide safe staffing,” said Penny Johnson, an RN who works in the peripherally inserted central catheter line team at Good Samaritan. “Instead of doing what is necessary to retain and recruit staff, the hospital continues to drive nurses away by cutting corners to save money at the expense of our patients and community.”

• Who: Registered nurses at PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital
• What: Informational picket for patient safety and a fair contract
• When: Thursday, March 9, 6 a.m. to 8:30 a.m and 6 p.m to 8:30 p.m.
• Where: PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital, 1225 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90017, in front of the hospital on the sidewalk

Since October 2022, 50 nurses have left. The RNs urge management to invest in nursing staff and agree to a contract that provides:

• Safe staffing on all units and shifts
• Ensures management complies with California’s RN-to-patient ratios law
• Retention and recruitment of nurses at all levels of experience
• Improvements to health and safety language

“PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital needs to be accountable and invest in our patients,” said Sandra Rodriguez, RN in the care management unit at the facility. “Instead, they have cut back on services, such as suspending our stroke program, which will only create delays in patient care in our community.”

“The hospital continues to propose takeaways to our contract and contract language that would only further endanger our patients,” said Lissette Sempe, RN in the cardiovascular definitive observation unit at Good Samaritan. “Rather than propose language that would improve our ability to safely care for patients, we are seeing the hospital attempt to prevent us from being able to speak out.”

California Nurses Association represents nearly 600 nurses at PIH Health-Good Samaritan Hospital.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout California and nearly 225,000 RNs nationwide.