From Reuters, 9.21.11, by Steve Gorman
Some 2,500 nurses and other medical workers walked off the job at Kaiser Permanente facilities in southern California on Wednesday in a three-day planned strike protesting benefit cuts sought by the nonprofit healthcare giant.
The striking employees are represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), which began negotiations about 18 months ago on its first labor contract with Kaiser facilities in Los Angeles, San Diego and other locations.
The bulk of the picketing took place outside Kaiser's Los Angeles Medical Center in Hollywood, the organization's leading in-patient hospital in the region, where over 1,100 registered nurses went on strike.
Adding to their ranks were more than 1,300 striking healthcare employees at other Kaiser facilities, including mental health therapists, audiologists, dietitians, social workers and speech pathologists.
On Thursday, about 17,000 Kaiser nurses represented by the California Nurses Association in northern California plan to stage a 24-hour sympathy strike as southern California workers walk picket lines for a second day, union officials said.
Published September 22nd, 2011
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