Nurses at USC’s Verdugo Hills Hospital, Keck Medicine, and Norris Cancer Hospital are taking action.

Nurses at University of Southern California (USC) hospitals will hold two informational pickets on March 14 in Glendale and Los Angeles, California, as they protest USC administration’s refusal to adequately address RNs’ deep concerns about patient care and safe working conditions. Nurses from USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, USC Keck Medicine, and USC Norris Cancer Hospital are represented by California Nurses Association (CNA), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest nurses union.

“Nurses deserve benefits that allow us to focus on patient care,” said Ruby Carpo, RN in the emergency department at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital. “We expect USC to treat nurses as they say in their slogan, ‘Our patients, our people.’ Nurses deserve security and respect at work!”

“We are having difficulty recruiting nurses for our department,” said Noelle Dutton, RN in the catheterization laboratory at USC Verdugo Hills. “We need highly skilled nurses to provide the care that patients expect at USC hospitals.”

Glendale
When: Friday, March 14, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, 1812 Verdugo Blvd, Glendale, Calif.; at the corner of Verdugo Blvd and La Tour Way

Los Angeles
When: Friday, March 14th, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: USC Keck Medicine, 1500 San Pablo St., Los Angeles, Calif.; at the corner of Norfolk St. and San Pablo St.

For nurses at Verdugo Hills, negotiations on a new union contract began in December 2024 and have seen little to no movement on key issues. The RNs urge management to invest in nursing staff and agree to a contract that provides measures for nurse recruitment and retention, relief for nurses impacted by natural disasters and/or quarantine orders, and better protections against workplace violence.

“On several occasions, I have had serious security concerns about what’s coming into our hospital, especially weapons,” said Briana Sheil, RN in the medical/surgical unit at USC Verdugo Hills. “I am worried about my personal safety and the safety of my patients and fellow nurses.”

At Keck and Norris hospitals, nurses are preparing to enter negotiations for a new contract later this year. In anticipation of upcoming bargaining, the RNs urge management to invest in nursing staff and agree to provide safe staffing on every unit on every shift, resource nurses to ensure safe meal and rest breaks for RNs, and timely responses from management on nurses’ safety and patient care concerns, as well as natural disaster and quarantine order relief for nurses.

“Our patients are our number one priority,” said Allysha Shin, RN in an intensive care unit at Keck Medicine. “And in order to care for them safely, we must have the resources to do so.”

“Part of keeping our patients safe is resolving issues in a timely manner,” said Gina Vergara, RN in an intensive care unit at Keck Medicine. “Having unresponsive management makes it difficult to tackle issues in real time — especially issues that directly impact patient care.”

“Nurses show up every day for our patients, to take care of them and to advocate for everything possible that will improve their care,” said Rudy Cuellar, RN in an intensive care unit at Keck Medicine. “When nurses are outside our hospitals, it's because something is wrong inside. We need USC to live up to its mission, not leave us in the lurch."

Nurses at these facilities notified their employer on March 4 that they would hold informational pickets. CNA/NNU represents more than 300 nurses at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital and more than 1,800 combined at USC Keck Medicine and USC Norris Cancer Hospital.

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