Hundreds of registered nurses walked picket lines and rallied Tuesday as RNs at Kaiser Permanante’s flagship Los Angeles Medical Center began a seven-day strike.

The RNs, members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, are seeking a contract that will improvestaffing to protect patient care as well as economic gains that will promote retention of experienced RNs and boost recruitment of new nurses.

Los Angeles Medical Center (Kaiser Permanente) strike schedule

Seven-day strike, through March 22, 4867 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles.
Thursday, March 17: Rally, 11 a.m. at Kaiser Southern California corporate offices, 393 E Walnut St., Pasadena
Monday, March 21: Rally, 12:30 p.m. on strike line, 4867 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles

LAMC is the hub for specialty services such as Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation, a procedure for high-risk patients and is the regional high-risk center for young children with cancer.  Nurses are calling on Kaiser to invest in this regional specialty center and settling a fair contract with strong patient care provisions similar to what Kaiser has previously agreed in the CNA contract for 18,000 nurses in California.

“We are embarrassed by the lack of resources Kaiser is putting into this hospital,” said Aisha Ealey, a neo-natal intensive care unit RN at LAMC.  “If Kaiser is planning on using this medical center as its teaching hospital for their Medical School, it is critical to improve patient care conditions especially for our region’s sickest babies and kids, end floating (the assignment of RNs to areas outside their expertise) and provide for a fair contract for nurses.”

Despite making over $14.4 billion in profit over the past six years, Kaiser has frozen wages for nurses at the region’s tertiary center.