At 7 o’clock this morning, Alta Bates nurses hit the picket lines, at both the Berkeley and Oakland hospitals. High turnover rates, poor working conditions, and allegations of workplace violence are the motives behind this strike. The protests are set to last five days.
Immediate changes are being demanded by members of the California Nurses Association, a state affiliate of National Nurses United. They want Sutter Health to ensure that each unit at Alta Bates Hospital has a violence protection plan in place. Advocates also want Sutter to provide workers the resources required to do their jobs properly.
Alta Bates workers say that nurses are often forced to work double-shifts for days at a time, just to keep the hospital operating. Working conditions need to be improved, they say, so that patients can receive better care, and so that nurses have incentive to stay.
They say that conditions at the hospital have gotten so bad that even veteran nurses are leaving their positions.
In response to the protest, Sutter Health officials say that they are "disappointed" in union members for choosing to "disregard" their patients.
