Dear Nurses!
I could not be more proud to be a part of this UNITED group of Nurses. I am still on cloud nine thinking about how nearly 600 of us showed up yesterday morning.
Check out some of the photos we collected in our Facebook photo album. 
Check out all the media attention we got. (Including an early morning "SkyFox Chopper" flyover yesterday by Fox 11 that ended with the reporter saying "Hopefully the nurses will get what they need!" Amen!
And speaking of press attention, did you hear what the hospital is telling the media? They say they're very "disappointed that Nurses chose to strike at this time" during a pandemic.
ummmmm...
Nurses kinda know that we're in a pandemic right now. I can't even count all the ways this hospital has "disappointed" us during this health crisis.
- We're disappointed that hospital administrators chose this time to take available nurses off the schedule and understaff our units during a pandemic.
- We're disappointed that the hospital forces us to stay in full PPE for 8, 10, 12 hours or more without even a sip of water because they refuse to provide break relief.
- We're disappointed that they decided—during a pandemic—to walk away from our mediated agreement on safe staffing that was working.
- That means they think they can go back to having as many ER transfers as they want, violate California's Title 22 regulations on ratios and Charge Nurses, and ask young new hires interviewing for jobs here if they'd be willing to take an out-of-ratio assignment.
The hospital has failed to support and protect us. Like I said yesterday during our "speak-out" session, their job is to take care of the people who take care of the people. Instead of taking extra precautions "at this time during a pandemic," they have failed us. From the very beginning when they actually threatened to discipline RNs for wearing masks, until now when they've walked away from our safe staffing agreement.
In case you missed the moving "speak-out" session yesterday morning, we posted it to Facebook here and here.
Let's make sure the hospital knows we mean business by showing up in HUGE numbers every day!
See you tomorrow!
Mo