Business & Tech
Nurses Picket at Alta Bates, Other Sutter Hospitals
About 3,000 members of the California Nurses Association began a seven-day protest Friday at five East Bay Sutter Hospitals, including Alta Bates in Berkeley.
Nurses wearing red and carrying signs picketed Alta Bates in Berkeley and other East Bay Sutter hospitals Friday in their first day of a seven-day protest over contract negotiations.
It was the ninth strike called by the California Nurses Association against Sutter in less than two years, according to Bay City News Service.
Sutter is "pushing for worker concessions including eliminating paid sick leave and doing away with health care coverage for nurses working less than 30 hours per week, and major increases in nurses' out-of-pocket health care costs," Bay City News reported.
Sutter spokeswoman Stacey Wells said temporary replacements would take over the nurses' jobs during the strike. She said the corporation offers nurses some of the highest salaries and benefits in the region – with full-time nurses earning an average $137,000 salary a year – even though Sutter lost $21.5 million in the first quarter this year, the news service reported.
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