Sutter Health faces a potentially serious problem. Service Employees International Union, the union representing thousands of hospital employees at Sutter facilities in Northern California, voted yesterday to authorize a strike. A walkout could come as early as June. The local SEIU chapter wants management to accept a more favorable contract for the nurses, therapists and technicians it represents. Labor difficulties have become a fact of life for healthcare providers in California. The state's powerful nurses unions have played a major role in setting the political agenda in Sacramento and have been credited by some observers with forcing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to reverse course on several major healthcare issues.

- see this story [1] from the San Francisco Chronicle