SAN FRANCISCO, March 22 (UPI) -- Nurses in the San Francisco Bay Area this week are picketing outside several hospitals for improved benefits, safe conditions and sufficient break times.
Nurses carried signs Friday reading "Safe Staffing Saves Lives," "Patients Before Profits" and "No Take Aways" as the start of a 10-day strike, which is the third of its kind since last fall, The San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported.
The demonstration reportedly is mostly taking place at hospitals associated with the Sacramento-based Sutter Health network.
"We're doing this to retain nurses and to keep what we've worked hard for," said Bonnie Morgan, a nurse at Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch.
Many replacement nurses traveled to California from out-of-state to replace those on the picket lines, the Mercury News report said.
"It's just as smooth as glass here. It's really been without incident," said Jonnie Banks, a spokeswoman for Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley.
