—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

Kaiser nurses in L.A. strike for contract, against short-staffing

LOS ANGELES — Chanting “Kaiser, Kaiser you can’t hide, We can see your greedy side,” hundreds of registered nurses at Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center rallied March 21 on the last day of their seven-day strike to press their fight for a contract.

The walkout involved 1,200 nurses who voted to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United last July and are now seeking their first contract. A central question in the strike is short-staffing.

The strikers held spirited daily pickets at the hospital as well as actions at Kaiser’s Southern California corporate offices in Pasadena.

“Before we had 32 beds in ICU. We were already short-staffed,” Gerald Bailey, an intensive care unit nurse for eight years, told the Militant. “We opened a neuro ICU with 16 beds but didn’t hire more nurses.” Bailey said he’s worked up to 22 hours straight.

A year ago management said workers would be fired for using hospital food utensils, he said. “Even in prison you get utensils.”

“Everything is about cost-cutting,” said Rodrigo Ramirez, a registered nurse at the medical center for 11 years. “We haven’t had a wage increase in six years. They want to eliminate the sitter so if someone falls, there is no one to catch them. Or they want to restrain patients.”

“Right now they are videoing in people’s rooms, which is an invasion of privacy,” added striker Gus Mata.

Kaiser made over $14.4 billion in profit over the past six years.

— Deborah Liatos

Flight attendants, mechanics at United picket for union contracts

SAN FRANCISCO — For the third time in less than a month Teamsters at United Airlines have organized picket lines at airports or United maintenance bases demanding a new contract. Members of the Association of Flight Attendants joined Teamsters on a picket line of 150 at the airport here March 17. The AFA also had picket lines at 10 airports in the U.S. and some in other countries. Teamsters have been fighting for a contract for over three years. Flight attendants started negotiations this year.

Union contracts for airline workers are governed by the 1926 Railway Labor Act — extended in 1936 to include the airline industry — which violates workers’ right to strike when a contract expires. It says they must first exhaust procedures for mediation and a “cooling-off” period, which can take years.

— Tom Tomasko