Thousands of California nurses walked off the job on Thursday in their latest protest over benefits and working conditions. The one-day strike spanned nine hospitals in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas. DeAnn McEwen of the National Nurses United Executive Council spoke outside Memorial Hospital in Long Beach.

DeAnn McEwen: “We’re out here because the hospitals refused to put safe staffing language in the contract, number one. Number two, the healthcare takeaways they’ve got on the table. They want to ask us to pay more money for healthcare, and this is a healthcare facility. Sick and vulnerable patients deserve healthy nurses to care for them.”