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Nurses Strike For Better Ebola Preparedness

Nurses carry signs as they strike outside of Kaiser Permanente hospital on November 11, 2014 in San Francisco, California joining 18,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses who are staging a two-day strike amidst contract negotiations and to demand better training and optimal safeguards for treating ebola.  (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Nurses carry signs as they strike outside of Kaiser Permanente hospital on November 11, 2014 in San Francisco, California joining 18,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses who are staging a two-day strike amidst contract negotiations and to demand better training and optimal safeguards for treating ebola. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Up to 18,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses in California are picketing outside medical centers and clinics on the second day of a two-day strike over wages and benefits.

They’ve timed their strike to coincide with nurse protests across the country today, in a “National Day of Action,” over what nurses say is a widespread lack of Ebola preparedness at hospitals.

April Dembosky, health reporter for The California Report on KQED, tells Here & Now’s Robin Young that the nurses strike in California is focused on filling more than 2,000 nursing positions that have been vacated in the last three years, better protections for use of sick leave or more flexibility over breaks and more training and education.

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