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On the Radar: Nurses' strike, Obama speech, Taiwan arms
Three things you need to know today.
Nurses strike: Almost 23,000 nurses at hospitals in northern and central California won't report to work on Thursday as they stage a one-day strike to protest concessions demanded by hospitals that the nurses say will hurt their role as patient advocates and cut their health and pension benefits.
The strike by members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United targets hospitals operated by Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente as well as Children's Hospital in Oakland.
Among their grievances, the nurses say job concessions sought by Sutter Health would require them to report to work when ill, endangering patient health, according to a statement on the union's website.
At Kaiser, nurses are striking in sympathy with co-workers who face cuts in their health coverage and retirement plans, the nurses' union says.
Complaints at Children's Hospital include cuts to health care plans that would make it too expensive for nurses to bring their own kids to Children's for treatment, according to the union statement.
See a list of affected facilities.
Obama jobs speech: President Barack Obama head to Cincinnati on Thursday to pitch his $447 billion jobs bill – a combination of infrastructure spending, tax cuts and aid to state and local governments.
He'll speak with the Brent Spence Bridge as a backdrop. The span across the Ohio River carries one of the country's major trucking routes, but it is in need of $2.4 billion in repairs, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The bridge links the constituencies of the top two Republicans in Congress - House Speaker John Boehner's district is on the Ohio side while Kentucky is home of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and winning Ohio's 18 electoral votes in 2012 could be pivotal to Obama's re-election.
Taiwan arms: China warned the United States Thursday that a multi-billion dollar arms sales to Taiwan will create "severe obstacles" between Beijing and Washington, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
"The wrongdoing by the U.S. side will inevitably undermine bilateral relations as well as exchanges and cooperation in military and security areas," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun said, according to Xinhua. Zhang summoned U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke to lodge a protest.
The $5.3 billion arms package includes upgrades to Taiwan's F-16 fighter fleet, a five-year extension of F-16 pilot training at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and spare parts for the upkeep of three different planes used by the Taiwanese, according to State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. The deal is part of the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program.
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Banasy I had Crabs when I lived in Louisiana.lol Soft shell crabs, that is, yummy.
Nurses (and doctors) are fat, lazy, freeloading slobs. Every time I visit relatives in the hospital, the nurses are at the station playing video Texas Hold-em. Patients seeking help have to take a tater and wait. A nurse dropped a mouthpiece on the floor and then placed it in my mother-in-law's mouth. Disgusting.
The Healthcare Industry should immediately be placed under Wage. Price and Benefit controls the are set to year 2000 levels.
Nurses virtually run hospitals, so any concessions by these deserving persons are ludicrous. Try demanding concessions from doctors or charge them for the privilege (NOT a right) to practice in the hospitals involved. See how that works for you.
Kudos to the nurses! they work hard and get paid so little
if not for them the hospitals will cease to exist ! the nurses are the ones
that make it happen! Yay Nurses!
give them what they want and shut the heck up! buttholes that don't understand!
Totally agree with BobNAlambama
lol u guys are too freakin funny 4 real! i told u i quit my job banasy tho im not sure if u read my post on that. remember all these months of 7 day weeks and l2 hr days. the rotten sob busted me down to 2 days a week 6 hr days cuz i took 4 days 4 a funer
i love the race card being used for Obomba. so silly so liberal
al 4 my dad then had the nerve to short my pay. & true true bout the nurses. they will know this for a fact if they actually do strike! scottish mama shame on u lol ive ate seafood one way, crab ragoon! my dad was a comercial fisherman when i was a kid ew
@chrissy:
Your boss cut your hours way down because you are grieving for your dad and went to his funeral??????
jj, this is the kind of stuff that people are at the mercy of without the checks and balances that the conservatives are trying so desperately to take away....and you saying anything about the libs is rather a moot point when you call the POTUS "Obomba". So silly. Period.
jj it is not funny EVER when the race card is used, it is only ignorant!!! I just knew this good banter couldnt last that their would be some ignorant p.o.s. that would tick me off! Grow up jj
i am white & my nephew is black & even he tried the race card on me the other day keepin in mind i raised the lil turd i was highly offended & thought bout ur bad tator then too lol anyway i told him its on & poppin now u aint 2 old & i aint i can take u
yup he sure did banasy, course i told him take his job and shove it
The country is loosing the middle-class, which was built by the Unions – that's right, Unions. Now it's time for unions to gain strength. Corporations with overpaid presidents, vps & boards who are yielding record profits need to share the wealth with those who "do the work". All of Middle and lower income America needs to stand behind the rights of the nurses to have benefits and proper work rules. Taking these away will further lead to a decrease in our way of life and create a company where you are either poor or rich - with most of us coming out on the poor side. The country needs to support the Unions, and the Unions need to get out there and start Unionizing again!! The government is not protecting the rights of the worker, so someone else has to!
For all of you making nasty or rude comments about nurses, you have no idea what it is like to be a nurse. Nurses are the heart of all hospitals and doctors would not know what to do with themselves if they actually had to take on the nurse’s responsibilities. Hospitals are responsible for making sure that the nurse to patient ratio is appropriate so they are able to provide safe patient care. Every body acts like nurses make so much money, but in reality nurses in Illinois only starts out making 36,000 a year. I work 12 hour days and get one ½ hour break. The rest of my day is spent running around and charting. Furthermore for all of you that think when they see a nurse at the station on a computer they are just being lazy, you are wrong. When we are sitting at a computer we are charting. Most are very hard working and professional. Nursing is like any other profession and there will always be some unprofessional nurses. Every good nurse knows how important evidence based practice and the 5 rights of medications administration are. This is a mistake that could have happened anywhere and no one is to blame but the incompetent nurse. I would love to see anybody that’s complaining about nurses actually try to do what we do on a daily basis.