FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2011
 
Mother Days Brunch on the Picket line 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
see photos from the strike here

“All mothers want the best care for their children. We are fighting for the right to bring our children to our own hospital and for the right of mothers everywhere to maintain quality care for their families.”

All across America, people are having their healthcare taken from them. On this year’s Mothers Day in Oakland, California, the registered nurses at Children’s Hospital are holding the line against erosion of their health care and fighting to maintain quality care for mothers and families everywhere. Mother’s Day marks the fourth day of a five-day strike that centers on a hospital proposal that would prohibit nurses from bringing their own children to the hospital where they work.
 
Nurses see the trend of takeaways as detrimental to all working families many of whom are caught in a dramatic struggle to maintain their healthcare in the face of budget cuts that often take from the most vulnerable Americans, but allow executives to keep their bonuses, pay increases, and premium healthcare. Children’s Hospital is no exception, paying their top 26 executives $8.9 million in 2008, yet saving less than $1 million a year from its proposed healthcare cuts to the nurses.

In response to these types of attacks on working families, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United recently launched the Main Street Contract for America, a national campaign that ensures a healthy safe future for everyone.

Children's misleads the public about its true financial state
Data supplied by the Children's Hospital management itself to the U.S. Government and state agencies belies the hospital's claims of money woes, documenting instead a hospital with considerable resources. The hospital made $18.4 million according to its 2009 IRS form 990, and $18.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. (Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development data 12/10)
 
What: Mothers Day Brunch
When: Sunday, May 8, 2011, 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.            
Where: Children’s Hospital Oakland, 747 52nd St., Oakland

Nurses and mothers affirm the right for everyone to have care
“If they take healthcare from nurses and our families, whose next?” said Mary Dhont, an RN who has worked at Children’s for 23 years and is a mother of two. “Nurses know that when healthcare, safety net programs, or education is cut for anyone, everyone is harmed. Nurses bring people into the world, now we are fighting to protect them.”
 
The nurses have been working without a contract since July 13. The CNA nurse negotiating team has made itself available to resume talks, after management unilaterally cancelled the last bargaining session scheduled on Tuesday, April 26. The hospital has not responded to the nurses’ request to meet.
 
Ongoing picketing will occur in front of the hospital everyday from 6:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m. The five-day strike ends on Tuesday, May 10 at 7:00 a.m., when the nurses will return to work.