Extra

Nurses working at Kaiser Permanente medical centers in the Bay Area walked off of the job today to protest what they say are eroding standards of patient care. 

The California Nurses Association said the strike, which started at 7 a.m., is planned to last until 7 a.m. Thursday. 

Kaiser medical centers remain open during the strike, though some elective procedures and appointments may need to be rescheduled, hospital officials said in a statement. A Kaiser representative will contact patients whose appointments will need to be rescheduled. 

Katy Roemer, a registered nurse and a member of the union's bargaining team, said there has been no significant movement on 39 proposals the union has placed before Kaiser during contract talks. 

Deborah Raymond, a registered nurse and senior vice president and area manager of Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, said management has responded to all of those proposals and is waiting for the union to respond. 

"We're a little perplexed" as to why the nurses are striking, Raymond said. 

Currently, the talks center around "operational issues" and pay and benefits haven't "even come across the table yet," Raymond said. 

She said patient care at the hospital is not eroding. Rather, the hospital is delivering high-quality care and its outcomes show that. 

Roemer said Kaiser did respond to its proposals, but said the company has not put forward any of its own. Nurses have been bargaining since the end of July, Roemer said. 

The lack of resources being offered to nurses at Kaiser hospitals for treating Ebola patients prompted nurses to demand more resources during a march last month. 

"The failure to properly meet the optimal safety protections for Ebola speaks volumes to the erosion of patient care standards in the U.S. generally," said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of both National Nurses United and the California Nurses Association. 

Union officials said that Kaiser has not filled more than 2,000 nurses' positions lost at its Northern California facilities during the past three years and nurses are currently having trouble taking care of patients. 

At noon today, about 500 nurses rallied in front of Kaiser's new hospital at the corner of West MacArthur Boulevard and Broadway in Oakland to demand the additional resources. 

Roemer said nurses are highly skilled professionals, "but if we don't have the resources ... we are hobbled." 

Kaiser officials added a statement this afternoon that the union has recently changed the reason for its worker actions. 

"For weeks, union leadership has claimed to the public that this strike is about Ebola," the statement said. "In the last day or so, the union has changed its message and now says to the public that the strike is about 'staffing.' Just as the union's Ebola message is not sticking because it is not supported by the facts, this new reason for striking by the union also isn't true."