Calif. nurses strike over benefits, staffing

Nurses in California went on strike Thursday -- some for the second time in three months -- in the latest dispute between nurses and hospital management over health care costs, staffing levels and sick leave. The California Nurses Association -- the union behind the one-day walkout -- expected 6,000 nurses at nine hospitals in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas to participate, although a hospital official said a "significant number" of nurses had crossed the picket lines. Sutter spokeswoman Kami Lloyd did not have an exact number of the nurses who went to work but said 63 percent of the nurses at the Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch crossed picket lines, while 59 percent went to work at the Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley.