By Catherine HoUpdated May 17, 2024 7:10 p.m. (SFChronicle.com)
The roughly 2,220 registered nurses who work for the San Francisco Department of Public Health are poised to strike over what they say are staffing shortages and unsafe conditions for patients.Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle
The roughly 2,220 registered nurses who work for the San Francisco Department of Public Health have voted to authorize a strike over what they say are staffing shortages and unsafe conditions for patients at the city’s public hospital and clinics, the union representing the nurses said late Friday.
The union, SEIU Local 1021, completed a vote among its members Friday to authorize a strike that would begin after June 30 if the union cannot reach a new contract with the city before then. The current contract expires June 30.
The union and the department have been in contract negotiations since February.
The public health department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening.
The strike would include nurses who work at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, the skilled nursing facility Laguna Honda, and community clinics.
Nurses cited chronic understaffing and long wait times in the emergency department, and said the city has not engaged in good faith to prioritize patient care.
“Our public hospitals and clinics are literally at a breaking point, and city management is acting as if it’s business as usual,” Heather Bollinger, a registered nurse in the emergency department at San Francisco General Hospital, said in a statement.
“Private hospitals are actively recruiting the nurses we’ve invested considerable time and resources into training — and when they can get hired quickly for higher pay and better working conditions, many of them accept those offers. This churn and burn feeds a vicious cycle of short staffing.”
Reach Catherine Ho: cho@sfchronicle.com
May 17, 2024|Updated May 17, 2024 7:10 p.m.
HEALTH CARE REPORTER
Catherine Ho covers health care at The San Francisco Chronicle. Before joining the paper in 2017, she worked at The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Journal, writing about business, politics, lobbying and legal affairs. She’s a Bay Area native and alum of UC Berkeley and the Daily Californian.
