Sutter locks out nurses at Bay Area hospitals following strike

Sutter Health shut its doors early Friday at five Bay Area hospitals to registered nurses who tried to return to work after a two-day strike.
The nurses work at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center facilities in Berkeley and Oakland, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, San Leandro Hospital and Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo. The lockout is expected to continue for up to three days, union officials said.
Officials at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center countered in a prepared statement that Sutter had to sign a five-day contract with replacement nurses to fulfill hospital needs during the strike, so nurses who walked off the job will be called back as needed or welcomed back to work Monday.
The Sacramento-based health system is in contract negotiations with the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee at 13 Sutter hospitals, none in Sacramento. Frustrated by a lack of progress at the bargaining table, the union called a strike Wednesday and Thursday.
"For a corporation that pretends it respects and values RNs, the lockout sends a very different, shameful message of retaliation," Zenei Cortez, a nurse and member of the union council of presidents said in a prepared statement. "It's an insult not only to the nurses, but also to the patients who deserve access to their experienced, qualified RNs."
Sutter leaves contract negotiations to its local affiliates, so it is up to each hospital to decide how to handle strike situations and plans for replacement workers. Contracts with outside agencies differ with need, so some hospitals are bound to keep replacement workers longer than others.
Alta Bates Summit Medical Center has about 1,000 nurses; nearly half stayed on the job this week, hospital officials said in the prepared statement. Replacement nurses and staff filled the gaps Wednesday and Thursday.
The union was informed the week before the strike that any nurses who showed up for work on the first day of the action could work during the five-day replacement period, hospital officials said.
The union is also in contract talks with the Fremont-Rideout Health Group in Marysville and Yuba City, where workers were also locked out Friday, union representatives said.
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