Sutter Nurses Stage One-Day Strike

Nurses and health care workers at 15 facilities across Northern California including Eden Hospital in Castro Valley held a one-day strike on April 18 to protest a refusal by Sutter Health to address their concerns about safe staffing and health and safety protections. 

The strike was called by the California Nurses Association (CNA), an affiliate of National Nurses United, and CNA affiliate Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union (CHEU). More than 8,000 registered nurses and health care workers are participating in the strike outside hospitals such as Alta Bates Summit in Oakland and Berkeley and California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

Sutter Health RNs and health care workers have been in negotiations since June 2021 for a new contract. They urge management to invest in nursing staff and agree to improve pandemic readiness protections by stockpiling protective equipment following state health official-endorsed COVID-19 stockpile requirements.

"We have tried repeatedly to address the chronic and widespread problem of short staffing that causes delays in care and potentially puts patients at risk, but hospital administrators continue to ignore us,” said Amy Erb, a nurse who works in Critical Care at California Pacific Medical Center.

A Sutter Health spokesperson said they are hopeful they can reach an agreement with the nurses’ unions.

“By moving forward with today’s costly and disruptive strike, union leadership has made it clear they are willing to put politics above patients and the nurses they represent – despite the intervention of federal mediators and our willingness to bargain in good faith while under threat of a strike,” a Sutter Health spokesperson said.