Los Angeles, California – Dozens of nurses in Northern California took their protest public Tuesday, rallying outside Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics to call out recent layoffs and sound alarms about the future of their profession.
From San Francisco to Sacramento, nurses in scrubs and red union shirts formed picket lines in front of 22 Kaiser facilities. It wasn’t a strike—Kaiser’s clinics and hospitals remained open—but an informational picket led by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU), which represents nearly 25,000 Kaiser nurses. Their goal was to get ahead of what they see as troubling shifts in healthcare, from job cuts to the growing use of artificial intelligence.
“Nothing can replace the hands of a nurse,” said Eric Newsom, an ICU nurse who joined the demonstration. “We are trained to take care of you. We’re trained to take care of your family members.”…