www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, February 2008 - March 2008Nurses Strike for careEditor's note: In mid-December California nurses went out on a two-day strike for the second time against Sutter Health. For coverage of the first strike, see December 2007-January 2008 N&L. Oakland, Calif.--Sutter Health does want to take away our pension and healthcare options. But that is not the only take-away important to us. Ever since they bought up independent stand-alone facilities, they want to close St. Luke's in San Francisco, which is a hospital in a poor neighborhood, and to close a hospital in Santa Rosa. They are proposing to downgrade the hospital in San Leandro to a rehab center. In Marin County, they are proposing to consolidate facilities into only the wealthy areas. On nurse-patient ratio, they don't even try to pretend that they follow the law mandating that the ratio be 5 to 1--no more than five patients per nurse. That means 5 to 1 at all times. But when you need a break and there is no relief nurse, the one covering for you has a 10 to 1 ratio for the duration of the break. There are fines mandated for such flagrant lawbreaking, but there is no enforcement. They are not held accountable. There is a new kind of doctor employed by the hospital, a "hospitalist." Those are doctors working as hospital administrators. They have a financial link with the hospital: the quicker patients get out, the better their numbers look. Patients dismissed too early come right back, sicker than they were before. Their negotiations are not about the money they claim it would cost to give us reasonable pension and healthcare options. They spend more than all of that money on hiring scabs, flying them in, putting them up in hotels, buying them food, etc. It is more about their power to do to us what they want, than it is about money. --Striking nurse |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
