On Oct. 10 and 11, over 5,000 nurses went on strike in the Bay Area. It was California’s largest strike of registered nurses this decade. The registered nurses of Sutter Health have struck in defense of patient services that Sutter Hospitals provides to Bay Area communities and as part of an ongoing struggle with the corporate giant. Ironically, the nurses are fighting to protect their own healthcare benefits.
Despite the fact that Sutter Health reported almost $600 million in profit last year, it has proposed changes that would increase its nurses’ costs in premiums, deductibles and co-payments for office visits, emergency care, prescription drugs and medical procedures.
In addition, Sutter has made wide-ranging cutbacks that California Nurses Association argues have violated safe staffing ratios and practices. These practices hurt both the workers and the patients.
According to Mary Michelucci, a nurse at Sutter’s St. Luke’s hospital, “It is death by a thousand cuts. Department by department, service by service, they’re cutting us off. They’ve made nursery staffing on call! We will do whatever it takes to address this crisis.” St. Luke’s is a critical hospital in San Francisco and acts as the only contact many working people in the city have with the healthcare industry.
Pintip Rudy, another nurse, said that the closures that Sutter Health is engaged in or planning will deeply affect the community, “Sutter says it won’t affect anybody in the community, but it definitely would. There is nowhere else to turn to.”
During the strike, Sutter Health paid over $1 million per day to bring in scabs from other states. Scabs were paid $60 an hour, were flown to the Bay Area free of charge, and had all their living and eating expenses paid for. At the end of the two-day strike, nurses from six different Sutter facilities were locked out because Sutter had guaranteed the scabs at least five days of work.
The actions of Sutter Health exemplify the inherent contradictions of a system organized for profit. A giant in the health industry, Sutter Health cares little about providing health care for the communities of its own workers. Neither does it care about creating a safe working environment—which should be a non-negotiable right.
CNA and Sutter will continue negotiations with a mediator, but there is no doubt that the voices of the 5,000-strong nurses’ association have been heard. Not only has Sutter recognized their potential, but also the communities and patients of the Bay Area have taken notice of the nurses’ courageous act.
