Redding nurses to hold strike vote, picket over staffing concerns

Registered nurses and caregivers at Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, Calif., are set to hold a strike vote and informational picket on Thursday, June 11, as they press management to address patient care and safe staffing concerns.

The workers say management has refused to respond to concerns raised during negotiations for a new contract. Shasta Regional Medical Center is a Prime Healthcare facility, and the nurses and health care workers are represented by the California Nurses Association/Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union, or CNA/CHEU, an affiliate of National Nurses United.

Negotiations began last summer, according to the union, with the goal of improving patient care delivery and keeping experienced staff at the hospital. Among the issues raised by nurses and caregivers are the lack of a night shift pharmacy, staffing shortages in the emergency department, behavioral health unit, and intensive care unit, and the consolidation or elimination of core services.

“We are fighting to protect our patients from corporate greed,” said Michelle Gaffney, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at Shasta Regional Medical Center. She said Prime continues to acquire new hospitals while neglecting the ones it already operates.

The union said Shasta Regional management has not returned to the bargaining table after a one-day strike on February 19, when all represented staff walked out for the first time to protest what they described as unsafe staffing.

The June 11 actions are planned as follows: an informational picket from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., with a rally at 12 p.m., outside Shasta Regional Medical Center, 1100 Butte St., Redding.

“Our patients and community deserve better,” said Matthew Young, a nursing assistant in the Behavioral Health Unit. “When they seek treatment here, they should be met with adequate and competent staff.”

According to the union, nurses and caregivers want management to invest in staffing and agree to a contract that includes incentives to recruit and retain qualified staff, protections against workplace violence and infectious disease, and opportunities for upskilling and professional development.

NNOC represents 600 nurses and caregivers at Shasta Regional Medical Center. Nurses said they notified their employer on June 1 that they would hold the informational picket.

The press release also said Prime operates more than 50 hospitals across 15 states and employs 60,000 health care workers. It noted that nurses at Prime-owned Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago, who recently filed to join NNOC, will hold a one-day strike on June 11 over what they called illegal firings of six nurses in retaliation for union activity. Nurses at Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nev., another Prime-owned hospital, are also planning picketing that same day.

CNA/CHEU is part of California Nurses Association, which says it has more than 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities across California.