Long Beach Medical Center and Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital activate plans to continue providing
essential health care services; hospitals express disappointment in union leadership’s premature decision to
strike before reaching bargaining impasse
LONG BEACH, Calif., – May 9, 2025 – Long Beach Medical Center and Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital
today announced that the California Nurses Association (CNA) has formally notified the hospitals of the
union’s intention to strike beginning on Thursday, May 22. CNA represents more than 2,000 registered
nurses (RNs) at the hospitals.
The union delivered the strike notice following 15 bargaining sessions with representatives of the hospitals,
and without either party having declared an impasse in negotiations. By comparison, in the last two
contract negotiations between the hospitals and CNA—both of which successfully concluded in an
agreement without a strike being called—the negotiating teams held 42 and 21 bargaining sessions,
respectively, before an agreement was reached.
“Long Beach residents can be assured that the union’s decision to strike will in no way compromise our
hospitals’ ability or commitment to serve the essential health care needs of the community. We will
continue to provide emergency and critical care services. We will work to avoid scheduling elective
procedures during the strike to allow staff to focus on essential services and minimize disruption to care,”
said Stephanie Garcia, MSN, RN, TCRN, Vice President, Operations.
In a good faith effort to continue negotiations, the hospitals offered to schedule additional bargaining
sessions with union representatives in May and June to work towards an agreement. The hospitals’ offer
was conditioned upon the union withdrawing its strike notice and agreeing not to issue another strike
notice prior to the conclusion of these sessions. Unfortunately, the union’s leaders declined to withdraw the
strike notice.
“We are extremely disappointed that union leadership has prematurely chosen this course of action. The
hospitals have negotiated in good faith with union representatives for the last several months, and we
remain committed to doing so going forward. We continue to believe that the best way for our dedicated
nurses to reach a fair, financially responsible contract is at the bargaining table and not on the picket line.
We look forward to resuming negotiations with the union after the strike concludes,” said Garcia.
The hospitals will proactively reach out to patients to reschedule elective procedures outside of the
anticipated strike period between May 22 and May 26. The hospitals are working with their trusted nursing
agency partner to provide highly qualified and experienced replacement nurses to staff their emergency
department and otherwise to provide critical care to patients during the strike.