Nurses at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center will begin a five-day strike today, citing concerns over staffing levels, workplace conditions and proposed changes to health and retirement benefits.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The registered nurses, represented by SEIU Local 121RN, are scheduled to picket daily from 7 a.m. to noon through Friday outside the hospital at 501 S. Buena Vista St. A rally featuring nurses and elected officials is planned for 9 a.m. Monday, according to organizers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Union officials said nurses have been bargaining for a new contract since September 2025 and are seeking provisions they say would ensure safe staffing, protect workers from harassment and maintain health benefits.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the union, Providence has proposed increasing nurses\u2019 health care costs, ending a discretionary retirement contribution and eliminating a health incentive program, while also seeking changes to an attendance policy. Nurses contend the proposals would undermine staff retention and patient care.<\/p>\n
\u201cBreak nurses are constantly pulled into full assignments, leaving patients without coverage and nurses working 12-hour shifts without breaks,\u201d Kevin Grellman, a Cardiac Telemetry nurse, said in a statement. \u201cSome days, we barely have time to get water, use the restroom, or eat. When we raise concerns, our concerns are dismissed. Management calls it saving money — but it puts patient care at risk and violates our contract.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center told City News Service Friday the strike would not affect patients, and that it was prepared to continue normal operations without interruption during the walkout.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are disappointed SEIU 121RN chose this action rather than continue the important work of reaching an agreement at the bargaining table,\u201d the hospital said in a statement. \u201cWe respect our caregivers’ legal right to strike; however, we firmly believe that strikes only delay constructive contract talks, preventing represented caregivers from receiving the compensation increases and other contract enhancements they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hospital said it has bargained in good faith for six months to reach a competitive, sustainable agreement and remains committed to securing a fair contract and returning to negotiations soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nurses at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center will begin a five-day strike today, citing concerns over staffing levels,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[11018,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-200621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-health-wellness","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}