Registered nurses will be on strike at hospitals operated by the profitable Sutter corporation Thursday in a one-day walkout protesting inadequate staffing and other patient care concerns and corporate demands for some 130 cuts in health coverage for the RNs and their families.

Picket lines will be up at 7 a.m. at Mills-Peninsula hospitals in Burlingame and San Mateo, Sutter Auburn Faith in Auburn, Sutter Roseville, Sutter Santa Rosa, and Sutter Tracy.

The Sutter RNs are among some 5,000 RNs who will be on strike this week at California hospitals in walkouts called by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United.  Strikes are also scheduled in Los Angeles Thursday at Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angles Medical Center and on Friday at Providence Health hospitals in Torrance and Santa Monica.

In contract talks Monday, Sutter continued to take a hard line in negotiations involving RNs at Roseville, Auburn, and Santa Rosa, rejecting RN proposals by RNs to settle differences.

Sutter hardly needs to demand major cuts, notes CNA. Sutter has made more than $3 billion in profits the past five years, and sits on more than $8.3 billion in net assets. Yet Sutter is demanding its own caregivers pay substantially more for ER care, lab work, diagnostic procedures and other care than it requires for the general public in Sutter’s own health plan.

In a survey published Monday by the Sacramento Business Journal, Sutter CEO Pat Fry, with total compensation of over $6 million in 2013, was listed as the highest paid executive among “non-profits” in the Sacramento region. Sutter held down three of the four highest paid slots.

Sutter nurses will also conduct an informational picket Thursday at California Pacific Medical Center’s Pacific facility in San Francisco.  

Strike Locations, all picketing begins at 7 a.m.:

• Mills-Peninsula Health Services (Sutter), April 30. 1501 Trousdale Drive, Burlingame, CA and 100 S. San Mateo Drive, San Mateo, CA. Rally, Burlingame location, 12:30 p.m.
• Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital, April 30. 11815 Education Street, Auburn, CA. Rally, 1:30 p.m.    
• Sutter Roseville Medical Center, April 30. One Medical Plaza Drive, Roseville, CA. Rally, 12 noon and 4 p.m.
• Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, April 30. 30 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa, CA Rally, 12 noon.
• Sutter Tracy Community Hospital, April 30. 1420 N. Tracy Boulevard, Tracy, CA. Rally, 12 noon.   

Picketing only, no strike:

• California Pacific Medical Center-Pacific campus (Sutter), April 30, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., rally, 11:30 a.m., 2333 Buchanan St., San Francisco.

RNs Speak Out: Why We’re Striking

“We’re fighting for patient safety, we’re fighting against unsafe staffing. We believe patients deserve better.  I’m inspired by my colleagues who are willing to step up and take on the Sutter Health corporation in the name of safe patient care,” said Jennifer Barker Tilly, an emergency room RN, one of 1,000 RNs represented by CNA at Sutter Roseville. 

“Sutter is offering health care plans to the public that are better than what they are offering their own nurses. We need adequate health-care for ourselves and for our families along with staffing conditions that are safe.  As it is, Sutter is trying to cut corners despite tremendous profits, but nurses deserve basic essentials, which, at the very least, consist of quality health coverage and safe staffing,” said Sutter Santa Rosa ER nurse Debra Bucculatto, one of 420 RNs at the hospital.

“Our willingness to strike shows that we will fight Sutter’s slash-and-burn agenda. As a nurse negotiator I am proud to stand with my fellow Mills-Peninsula RNs: united, determined, and strong,” said Chris Picard, Family Birth Center RN who is among 700 Mills-Peninsula RNs.

“We are not willing to accept the significant healthcare cost increases being proposed by Sutter,” said Sandy Ralston, a recovery room RN one of 250 RNs at Sutter Auburn Faith.  “It’s wrong to squeeze out even more profits by forcing rates on us that are so high. It’s frightening how focused on profits this corporation is.”

 “We truly see the value in being united with other Sutter nurses,” said Dotty Nygard, one of 175 RNs at Sutter Tracy.  “It has been a remarkable experience to witness our collective voice grow stronger as union nurses since we initially voted in the union. We are proudly standing up for safe patient care, a fair contract, and respect for our profession.”

At Roseville, “Labor and Delivery staffing cuts are being carried out under the guise of  ‘efficiency’ when they are actually about cutting the quality of care,” said Labor and Delivery RN Andrea Seils. “Sutter is trying to restructure our unit to eliminate positions and combine care with no economic or operations justification for any of it. It’s unsafe for mothers and babies in our community.”