About 200 health care workers picketed outside the Kaiser Permanente medical center in north Modesto on Thursday to support a strike at 34 hospitals in Northern and Central California.
Union officials had expected nearly 23,000 members of the California Nurses Association to join the work stoppage along with 2,500 employees represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, although hospital officials reported that many nurses had crossed the picket line.
Employees with the NUHW began a one-day strike Wednesday to protest what they said were proposed cuts to health and retirement benefits.
The labor action affected Kaiser medical facilities in the Central Valley and Bay Area, hospitals owned by Sutter Health in the Bay Area, and Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland. The nurses and other employees were expected to resume work today at Kaiser facilities in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties.
"It has not affected patient care," said Corwin Harper, the senior vice president for Kaiser's Central Valley region. "We have appointments scheduled. I have gone to the hospital rooms and the patients are doing fine."
The strike did not affect medical facilities associated with Sutter Health in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.
Kaiser hired temporary nurses to care for patients at its north Modesto hospital and did not schedule elective surgeries for Thursday. Its clinics in Modesto, Manteca and Stockton remained open, although the parking lots at the Bangs Avenue medical office in Modesto were half empty Thursday morning.
The NUHW charged that Kaiser wants to implement major reductions in benefits for mental health professionals and opticians, despite recording profits of $5.7 billion over the past 2½ years.
About 30 Kaiser employees in Modesto joined the NUHW in October 2010 and their union is trying to negotiate a multiyear contract. They were supported on the picket line by CNA-affiliated nurses who work at the Dale Road Kaiser hospital and other facilities.
"In times of record profits in the health care industry, there is no need to be asking any workers to sacrifice," said Justin Lee, a nurse for Kaiser's 135-bed Modesto hospital, where 1,600 full-time employees work.
Talks are ongoing
Kaiser officials said they are continuing the contract talks with the NUHW, and suggested that its recent labor agreement with the California Nurses Association doesn't allow those nurses to strike.
"We are disappointed," Harper said. "We have a contract with the CNA that runs through 2014. We are negotiating in good faith with (the NUHW) and their issues will be addressed at the bargaining table."
Kaiser said many nurses had crossed the picket line and its hospitals in the Central Valley and Bay Area were "fully staffed."
The primary focus of the strike was Sutter Health, where union officials say nurses in contract negotiations are being asked to accept thousands of dollars in higher costs for their health care.
Sutter's proposed concessions also would reduce the ability of certain nurses to advocate for patients, cut pay for newly hired nurses, and slash vacations and holiday pay, according to the union.
Sutter officials said its hospitals have an obligation to keep health care costs down for patients.
Union members at Children's Hospital in Oakland, who have been without a contract for more than a year, have objected to a proposed increase in the cost of a health care plan the hospital offers.
Thursday's action was among the largest nursing strikes in recent years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In two strikes in March and May, up to 2,500 health care workers, including 2,100 nurses, held one-day walkouts at Kaiser Permanente's flagship Los Angeles Medical Center as part of a contract dispute.
The previous largest nursing strike, according to the BLS, was in June 2010, when a dispute over nurse-patient ratios led to a one-day walkout of 12,000 nurses working at 14 Minneapolis-area hospitals.
The California nurses strike was scheduled for one day, but Sutter Health and Children's Hospital officials said nurses will not be able to return to work immediately because the hospitals' contracts with replacement agencies require a minimum number of days of service.
At Sutter Health, that ranges from three to five days, a representative said. At Children's Hospital, it is five days.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Bee staff writer Ken Carlson can be reached at kcarlson@modbee.com or (209) 578-2321.
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