It is just after midnight and I just walked home from the picket line.
It is Saturday October 8th and it is almost 4 weeks since my coworkers & I went out on strike. The weather is getting nippier at night but the days are still sunny and nice.
Staying late allowed me to confer with my RN friends at shift change.
They say they want this strike to end (doesn't everybody?). Although they begin their shift with twice as many CNAs as before the strike, the replacement workers are not getting the job done.
Some of the Scab Aides are bad enough for the RNs to write a full page letter to their manager, begging him not to send particular replacements back again. One of the RNs brought home an incident report to document some of the problems.
One problem from yet another RN is that the replacement AIDEs do not report abnormal Vital Signs to their RNs. One patient had a heart rate of 140 that was not immediately reported. A regular heart rate is often considered 60-80 beats per minute.
Sadly I missed Delores Huerta at the Cal campus rally. I had to work with my registry hospice patient. People who were there sad it was a good rally. While the picketing can be spirited and fun, it is good to be working with a patient and their family. I look forward to returning to a better hospital when we win.
A nursing student from a local university stopped to ask about crossing the line. She said that her classmates are all asking about the strike. She asked what she could do. We suggested talking to her school administation about pulling out of CPMC. She said she would do that.
Friday Night I had the pleasure of going to a local Democratic Fundraiser. We met Congress woman Nancy Pelosi and Art Torres (California head of the Democratic Party). He announced his support of the strike from the stage. We talked to him in person as well and he pledged his continued support.
It would never have been necessary to develop such ties in the community if Sutter had ever listened to the workers. Their work place culture of not listening to the workers at the bottom started both our searh for friends and our strike.
-- Tom
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