Registered nurses at 15 Sutter Health hospitals across Northern California will hold informational pickets on Tuesday, March 15 to protest Sutter’s refusal to address RNs’ proposals about staffing, workplace violence, and pandemic readiness, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) today.

“We have been on the front lines before and during this pandemic,” said Amy Erb, critical care RN at California Pacific Medical Center of San Francisco. “Throughout this time, we have witnessed Sutter Health become profitable while they refuse to invest in the resources we need in order for us to provide safe and effective care to our patients and community.”

Nurses notified Sutter Health corporate officials on March 4 that they would hold an informational picket. See below for picket times, locations, and contact information.

Sutter Health RNs have been in contract negotiations since June 2021 for a new contract with little to no movement on key issues. The RNs urge management to invest in nursing staff and agree to a contract that provides:

• safe staffing that allows nurses to provide safe and therapeutic care;
• pandemic readiness protections that require the hospitals to invest in personal protective equipment stockpiles and comply with California's PPE stockpile law;
• presumptive eligibility for workers’ compensation that covers infectious diseases and protocols that ensure nurses have the resources needed to keep their patients and themselves safe; and
• workplace violence protections that include plans to mitigate and prevent violence within the hospitals and comply with the state's workplace violence prevention law.

“Sutter Health is not investing in us, the nurses, or the community they should be serving,” said Renee Waters, RN in the trauma neuro intensive care unit at Sutter Roseville. “Instead, they are frequently using the word ‘commitment’ in their responses to us without actually agreeing to proposals that hold them accountable. Sutter failed us during the pandemic. Our proposals are intended to correct Sutter’s gaps in pandemic readiness and workplace violence prevention. We want to have a proactive approach to the protections we deserve. We need Sutter to back up their statements that we are heroes and valued, with agreements to our proposals at the bargaining table.”

Facilities, locations, and picket times:

Sutter Solano Medical Center
300 Hospital Drive, Vallejo, CA 94589
7:30 a.m.-9:30. a.m.

Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital
30 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95403
3:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m.

Sutter Coast Hospital
800 East Washington Boulevard, Crescent City, CA 95531
4:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m.

Sutter Tracy Community Hospital
1420 N. Tracy Blvd, Tracy, CA 95376
8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.

California Pacific Medical Center
1101 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94109
12 p.m.-2 p.m.

California Pacific Medical Center
3555 Cesar Chavez, San Francisco, CA 94110
12 p.m.-2 p.m.

Santa Cruz VNA
2880 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95062
5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.

Eden Medical Center
20103 Lake Chabot Rd., Castro Valley 94546
7 a.m.-9 a.m.

Sutter Delta Medical Center,
3901 Lone Tree Way, Antioch, CA 94509
3:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.

Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital and Sutter Auburn Home Health and Hospice
11815 Education Street, Auburn, CA 95661
1:30 p.m.-4 p.m.

Sutter Roseville Medical Center
1 Medical Center Drive, Roseville, CA, 95661
3:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

Sutter Lakeside Hospital
5176 Hill Rd. E, Lakeport, CA 95453
9:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m.

Mills-Peninsula Medical Center
1501 Trousdale Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010
2 p.m.-5 p.m.

Novato Community Hospital
180 Rowland Way, Novato, CA 94945
7:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m.

Sutter Center for Psychiatry
7700 Folsom Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95826
2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.

The 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 more than 175,000 RNs nationwide.