LAKEPORT, Calif. – The California Nurses Association said its members at 34 hospitals around Northern and Central California – including Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport – will hold a strike this week to protect cuts to health care services.

Close to 23,000 nurses are expected to take part in the one-day strike, which the association said is targeting registered nurses' rights to speak out for patients as well as proposed cuts in health care and retiree coverage for nurses and other hospital workers.

Hospitals operating under Sutter and Kaiser Permanente, and Children's Hospital & Research Center of Oakland will take part. In addition to Sutter Lakeside, North Coast hospitals to be affected include Sutter Medical Center in Santa Rosa.

CNA spokesman Charles Idelson said the strike will take place from 7 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, to 7 a.m. Friday, Sept. 23.

Steve Kostove, a registered nurse who worked at the hospital for 19 years and has been a part of the CNA negotiating team, said the strike will take place in front of the hospital on Hill Road East.

Sutter Lakeside spokesperson Angie Lagle said that the hospital will have replacement nurses to cover the strike.

She said because Lake County is remote and there are 33 other hospitals striking, the the company providing the replacement nurses is requiring an eight-day contract.

As such, the nurses at Sutter Lakeside who go out on strike will have to take seven additional days of unpaid leave, Lagle said.

Both Idelson and Kostove called that a punitive lockout.

“We have been at loggerheads with Sutter for a number of years due to the abusive way they have treated communities in Northern and Central California,” said Idelson, accusing Sutter of being a Wall Street organization masquerading as a nonprofit that is limiting access to medically underserved patients.

He also accused Sutter of retaliating against nurses for speaking out against patient health care cuts.

Kostove believes he's a victim of that retaliation. He was suddenly terminated on Aug. 29, but is fighting the firing, which he believes arose from his pro-union activities. Kostove added that he's continuing his work in negotiations and will take part in the strike.

Kostove said all of the hospital's 125 nurses are represented by CNA, and at a Sept. 6 union meeting attended by 46 nurses, they voted unanimously to call for a strike.

A strike is no small matter for nurses, according to Kostove, who called strikes “incredibly emotionally gut wrenching” for everyone who takes part.

The nurses union said Sutter is trying to eliminate paid sick leave for registered nurses, slashing their health care coverage, vacations, holiday pay and education leave, reducing maternity leave, eliminating or reducing retiree health benefits.

Sutter Lakeside also is proposing to close home health services and limit acute-care hospital stays, the CNA said.

Sutter responded by stating that registered nurses who work at Sutter affiliate hospitals with CNA contracts earn an average of $136,000 annually.

Lagle said the Lakeport hospital only began negotiating with CNA in July, and so is later in the negotiations process than some of the Bay Area hospitals.

“We attempted to start bargaining back in February of last year,” she said, but the union wouldn't sit down with them until July.

The hospital's contract with CNA now is expired, she said. “We were really hoping to wrap it up before it went that far,” she said, adding that the contracts usually run for four years.

She said Sutter Lakeside has offered the union several proposals, including contract changes, which have been rejected, but the union hasn't yet made concrete counter offers in writing.

Kostove said Sutter Lakeside's proposals include changing the number of hours per diem nurses must work per pay period to qualify for health insurance form 40 to 64 hours. He said 25 nurses would automatically lose health benefits.

In addition, he said the hospital is proposing to cut shift pay differential by 50 percent.

He said the last negotiating session was held on Monday, at which time 32 CNA members showed up. Based on other negotiations, that's a lot of people to show up to such a session, he said.

Kostove said morale at the hospital has never been lower, and he believes the change has come about in the past year and a half due to the new administration.

As to how long the negotiations will continue, Lagle said it's anyone's guess.

The full list of hospitals that will be affected by the strike follows.

Sutter:

Alta Bates Main Campus, 2450 Ashby Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705

Alta Bates Herrick Campus, 2001 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

Alta Bates Summit Campus, 350 Hawthorne Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609

Eden Medical Center, 20103 Lake Chabot Rd, Castro Valley, CA 94546

San Leandro Hospital, 13855 E. 14th Str, San Leandro, CA 94578

Mills-Peninsula Medical Center, 1501 Trousdale Drive , Burlingame, CA 94010

Mills Health Center, 100 S. San Mateo Drive, San Mateo, CA 94401

Novato Community Hospital, 180 Rowland Way, Novato, CA 94945

Sutter Solano Medical Center, 300 Hospital Drive, Vallejo, CA 94589

Sutter Delta Medical Center, 3901 Lone Tree Way, Antioch, CA 94509

Sutter Lakeside Hospital, 5176 Hill Road East, Lakeport, CA 95453

Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, 3325 Chanate Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95404

Kaiser Permanente:

Kaiser Antioch, 4501 Sand Creek Rd, Antioch, CA 94531

Kaiser Fremont, 39400 Paseo Padre Parkway, Fremont, CA 94538

Kaiser Fresno, 7300 North Fresno St, Fresno, CA 93720

Kaiser Hayward, 27400 Hesperian Blvd, Hayward, CA 94545

Kaiser Oakland, 280 W MacArthur Blvd, Oakland, CA 94611

Kaiser Manteca, 1777 W Yosemite Ave, Manteca, CA 95337

Kaiser Modesto, 4601 Dale Rd, Modesto, CA 95356

Kaiser Redwood City, 1150 Veterans Blvd., Redwood City, CA 94603

Kaiser Richmond, 901 Nevin Ave, Richmond, CA 94801

Kaiser Roseville, 1600 Eureka Rd, Roseville, CA 95661

Kaiser Sacramento, 2025 Morse Ave, Sacramento, CA 95825

Kaiser San Rafael, 99 Montecillo Rd, San Rafael, CA 94903

Kaiser Santa Rosa, 401 Bicentennial Way, Santa Rosa, CA 95403

Kaiser San Francisco, 2425 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94115

Kaiser San Jose, 250 Hospital Parkway, San Jose, CA 95119

Kaiser Santa Clara, 700 Lawrence Expressway, Santa Clara, CA 95051

Kaiser S. Sacramento, 6600 Bruceville Rd, Sacramento, CA 95823

Kaiser South San Francisco, 1200 El Camino Real, South SF, CA 94080

Kaiser Stockton, 7373 West Lane, Stockton, CA 95210

Kaiser Vacaville, 1 Quality Dr, Vacaville, CA 95688

Kaiser Vallejo, 975 Sereno Dr, Vallejo, CA 94589

Kaiser Walnut Creek, 1425 South Main St, Walnut Creek, CA 94596

Other:

Children's Hospital & Research Center of Oakland, 747 52nd St., Oakland, CA 94609

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