About 4,000 members of the California Nurses Association (CNA) in different hospitals in the San Francisco Bay area will hold a strike lasting from one to 10 days starting on March 21. The job walkout will protest unsafe patient care policies, contract disputes and the closure of three community hospitals. The CNA is also demanding better medical benefits and pension.

Eight facilities of Sutter Health, an organization of not-for-profit hospitals and health care providers in Northern California, are to be affected by the strike. According to Bay City News, the clinics slated to close are; St. Luke's Hospital and California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, San Leandro Hospital, Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center in Berkeley and Oakland, Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame and San Mateo, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Sutter Delta in Antioch and Sutter Solano in Vallejo.

Bay City News quoted Sutter Health spokesman as claiming that nurses are well paid, receive free healthcare and a generous retirement plan.

Meanwhile, the California Pacific Medical Center plans to hire replacement nurses during the strike to ensure patient safety and care.