"Karen Garner, a spokeswoman for Sutter, said the hospital offers its nurses competitive wages and salaries but has an obligation to keep health care costs down for patients."

Really Ms. Garner, really??? Will cutting into the backbone of your facilities help keep costs down??? How about your top management's salaries, benefits and perks??? Are they also making the sacrifices???

In the meantime, that weasel Charlie Sheen will receive over $100 million net, and doesn't even have to show up for work, if that's what you want to call it. What about the one in another article today who is receiving some six figure number towards retirement just for showing up on his first day.

This is crazy and makes so very little sense. Athletes, Hollywood hoebags, and CEO's make $$$ that the average person cannot even imagine but yet, nurses, police officers, fire fighters and teachers are expected to take responsibility and lead, educate, heal and save lives for barely a liveable wage and these fools who couldn't find their asses with both hands are making sinful sums for nothing. Just like the old song "Money for nothing". Wonder what their reaction if they actually had to do a real job???

TAKE THE MESSAGE BACK TO YOUR SLAVE DRIVERS, MS. GARNER. TAKE CARE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES.

Dont know what Charlie Sheen or athletes or Hollywood hoebags have to do with some nurses going on strike. As far as the whole "its not about money, its about patient care" routine, That is obviously BS. Let me make sure I understand...these nurses are so concerned about patient care that they are willing to walk out on the patients to prove a point? Yeah, ok.....that makes sense..I guess.

Dont like how much that hospital pays? Go work somewhere else. Or just be thankful you even have a job right now. I think that like anyone else who walks off the job and says "I want more money and I'm not coming back to work until I get it" they should all be fired. It's not like they couldn't find nurses who are looking for work right now.

Nurse pay is not a living wage? In this area, nurses make 25-30/hr. Not bad for a 2 year degree. And dont forget on call pay, call back pay, shift differentials, etc. In this area (Maryland) it is not unusual for nurses to make close to 40/hr or 50/hr for working holidays. (My wife and I both work in hospital healthcare, our friends are nurses and techs so yeah, I do know what I'm talking about).

Boo hoo, nurses. Boo friggin' hoo.

My wife goes in to work at 6pm and her shift is finished at 8am, if she does not have to attend a meeting. She sometimes cares for 10 patients at a time. Nurse are over worked and underpaid.

I work in a call center and we have many employees who are only high school grads and make about $5.00 an hour less then my wife who has a BSN, a Masters in Business and a degree in psychology. I can not even begin to imagine when her student loans will be paid off.

She will always have a job thanks to her education but I would like to see a Doctor take a cut in pay like they are asking the Nurses to do. Nurses are not even treated with respect and many times they keep some Doctor from killing a patient. Not all Doctors are bad but some are and they look down on the Nurse. I hear and read many stories Nurses tell in private.

I for one support their strike and encourage more to strike in other areas of this country. It's time the work force in the medical field gets it's respect back. I have teacher friends who make much more for teaching grade school.

I am willing to bet Art wouldn't wipe anyone's arse for any amount of money. He will also be the first one to scream for a Nurse when he needs help getting out of bed to use the potty. Oh wait, he will most likely have a tube shoved down his little weene by a two year degree Nurse who doesn't get paid enough to touch his dirty little thing. PS > Artie boy, not all Nurses have just a 2 year degree, but the difference in pay is not even worth mentioning.

Well since you chose to get personal, moron, lets roll.

I WAS a nurse for 5 years. Navy Corpsman, nursing school, passed the board in 1998, med surg nurse at 3 hospitals in Md and Va. I have wiped asses, cleaned up puke, been swung at, peed on, and cursed out. I have dealt with a-hole doctors and even bigger a-hole families. I have cared for patients for hours, and then watched them die. So if you have no idea what you are talking about, its usually a good idea to STFU.

I know not all nurses have 2 year degrees. I never said all nurses did. Try reading a post before you respond to it. What I said was that 25-30/hr was not bad for someone with a 2 year degree. And it isnt. Name another profession where a brand new 2 year degree grad with no experience can make 25-30/hr walking in the door. I don't know of too many, at least in this area.

Do nurses work long hours? Yes. Do nurses put up with a lot of crap? Yes. Do nurses deal with frustrating and sometimes dangerous conditions? Yes.

Who Doesn't?????

If you don't like it, do something else. I did.

If you don't like where you work, go somewhere else. I did. I didn't cry about it.

So there you go, Mrs, Nurse. So if you have something intelligent to say, or can respond to any of my questions with an intelligent answer, go ahead and try. I might even read it.