Sutter Demands Huge Cuts Despite $4.19 Billion in Profits Since 2005
CALIFORNIA–(ENEWSPF)–June 5, 2012. Registered nurses will hold a one-day strike Wednesday, June 13 for Bay Area hospitals operated by the wealthy Sutter corporation, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United announced yesterday.
Sutter continues to demand more than 100 widespread, unwarranted reductions in patient care conditions and RN economic and workplace standards, despite rolling up nearly $4.2 billion in profits since 2005.
“Sutter continues to cut services and take short cuts with patient care just so they can maximize CEO wealth. At the same time they have proposed unprecedented cuts in nurses’ sick leave and healthcare benefits. We will continue to fight for ourselves and be the last line of defense for our patients” said Genel Morgan, RN at Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame
“With Sutter’s malevolent speed-up and endangering of patient care, we have no alternative than to be on the strike line. It’s a small price to pay for the safety of our patients, now and in the future,” said Eric Koch, RN, at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland.
“It’s time for Sutter to stop acting like Goldman Sachs or J.P. Morgan west. It’s time for Sutter to stop its scorched earth policy of cuts in patient services while seeking to erode living standards for the people our communities count on to care for them when they are sick and vulnerable. Nurses will continue to resist this Wall Street agenda, no matter how long it takes,” said CNA co-president Zenei Corez, RN.
The strike affects 4,500 RNs as well as hundreds of respiratory, X-ray and other technicians at the following hospitals: three Alta Bates Summit Medical Center facilities in Berkeley and Oakland, Mills-Peninsula Health Services hospitals in Burlingame and San Mateo, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, San Leandro Hospital, Sutter Delta in Antioch, Sutter Solano in Vallejo, Novato Community Hospital, and Sutter Lakeside.
The RNs will also continue to protest Sutter’s ongoing cuts in patient services throughout the region, including the latest closure of a unit at the Alta Bates Summit Herrick hospital in Berkeley that provides care for patients with long term disabilities. Sutter is slamming shut the facility and forcing families to move loved ones to be warehoused in a nursing home with lesser care in Pleasant Hill.
“It’s all about money for Sutter,” says Cortez. “They don’t think they can squeeze enough profit from these extremely fragile and weak patients, so they are essentially just kicking them out, regardless of what is in the best interest of the patients’ health.”
Sutter can well afford to meet its obligations to Bay Area communities and treat its RNs with respect, say the nurses. Since 2005, Sutter has racked up $4.19 billion in profits, according to its own audited financial statements. Sutter pays 21 top executives salaries over $1 million, several of them getting pay hikes of over 150 percent since 2005.
Among the many concession demands at various Sutter hospitals:
- Eliminating paid sick leave, effectively forcing nurses to work when ill, exposing already frail and vulnerable patients to further infection.
- Forcing RNs to work in hospital areas for which they do not have appropriate clinical expertise, again a safety risk for patients.
- Huge increases in nurses’ out-of-pocket costs for health coverage for themselves and family members.
- Limits on the ability of charge nurses, who make clinical assignments for nurses, to address staffing shortages, subjecting patients to the danger of unsafe staffing.
- Forcing RNs to work overtime, exposing patients to care from fatigued nurses who are more prone to making medical errors.
- Eliminating retiree health plans.
- Eliminating all health coverage for nurses who work less than 30 hours per week.
- Reduced pregnancy and family medical leave, undermining RN families.
Sutter’s record of abandoning communities and patients (partial list):
- End breast cancer screening for women with disabilities and most bone marrow transplant services for cancer patients at Alta Bates Summit in Oakland and Berkeley.
- Stop providing psychiatric services under contract with Sacramento County for more than 225 Sacramento children.
- Close specialized pediatric care, acute rehabilitation, dialysis, and skilled nursing care services at Mills and Peninsula hospitals in Burlingame and San Mateo.
- Close home health services and limit acute-care hospital stays in Lakeport.
- Close acute rehabilitation services, skilled nursing care, and psychiatric services, and substantially downgrade nursery care for sick children at Eden Hospital in Castro Valley.
- Sharply cut psychiatric care at Herrick Hospital in Berkeley.
- Close a birthing center at Sutter Auburn Faith, forcing new mothers and families to travel up to 100 miles for obstetrics care, while giving a $1 million gift to the Sacramento Kings.
- Close pediatric, psychiatric, lactation, and transitional care services in Santa Rosa.
###
Please Join and Share the Sutter Strike Facebook Page
Source: nationalnursesunited.org
