Thousands of Kaiser Permanente nurses are taking part in a strike in Southern California Thursday.
They say hospital officials have turned a blind eye and deaf ear to the problem of low staffing levels of registered nurses, whch they argue can cause dangerous condiitons for patients.
"There are patients that are very sick...in emergency rooms who are waiting for beds becuase of short staffing," said Tessie Costales, a longtime ICU nurse at Kaiser LA Medical Center.
Three Los Angeles County Kaiser hospitals are affected by the strike: LA, Torrance and Santa Monica. Service was not affected by what hospital officials call a labor tactic by the California Nurses Association.
"The purpose of this strike is really about causing a vote in the future. The claims about safety, the claims about staffing, are really completely false," said Dr. William Grice, executive director of Kiaser's LA Medical Center.
The Association helped organize the strike but does not represent registered nurses at LA Medical Center, and representatives said the strike is not about getting a vote.
Besides raising staffing leveles, the striking nurses want policies that give registered nurses a stronger voice in patient care delivery
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Nurse Joel Briones said workers decided to take a stand due to chronic staff shortages.
"We have come to a point where the nurses feel that Kaiser is not responding to the nurses concerns about the safe staffing levels and chronic short staffing in the medical centers that are putting many of our patients at risk," Briones said.
