Nurses Protest Understaffing and Potential Benefit Cuts

Listen to the full audio story

Download the MP3

60 year old Laneta Fitzhugh has been in the neonatal intensive care unit at Kaiser Permanente for the past 30 years. Even with the risks to pension plans, Fitzhugh says a major concern is the understaffing of nurses which has caused a wide-range of problems for patients.

"With the patients, it was some negative results; either from treatment or not having the correct staff and doubling up patients and you’ve had some where there have been some deaths," Fitzhugh said.

When these issues arise, Fitzhugh says the hospital tends to blame the nurses first.

"Most of the time, the blame always comes back on the nurses, no matter what and most of these nurses can say and agree to that," Fitzhugh. "So myself, I'll fight."

Licensed clinical social worker Gary Becker says understaffing hurts patients and nursing staff, but it benefits those at the top.

"The less staff we have, there's more profit at the end of the month, at the end of the year, for the folks who run the organization," Becker said. "The folks who run the organization are the administrators and the full time partners. The partners are the full time physicians. They get bonuses on top of bonuses, they get early retirement."

Vice President of Communications for Kaiser Diana Halper says the hospital not only meets but exceeds all nursing standards.

Halper says Kaiser is upset about the strikes today and believes the best way to resolve issues is at the bargaining table.

However, Laneta Fitzhugh says workers are frequently waiting to be included in on these negotiations.

"Did we get an invitation to the meeting, to make that decision to be a part of it? No. And that’s a problem," Fitzhugh said.

For now, the nurses say they will continue pressuring Kaiser until changes are made.