On Tuesday, January 19, Registered Nurses from San Francisco’s hospitals, clinics, and beyond spoke out at the Health Commission meeting to condemn the ongoing refusal by the city to provide emergency COVID-19 leave to all of San Francisco’s nurses. 

When the city rolled out its COVID-19 leave bank last March, they decided that P103 nurses should not have access to that emergency leave. Many P103 nurses often work full-time hours or beyond in in some of the most dangerous work settings, such as the COVID-19 ICU, quarantine hotels, and street testing. 

COVID-19 doesn’t care whether it’s infecting a permanent civil service nurse or a P103 nurse, so why does the City believe that only one type of nurse deserves access to COVID leave if they or a loved one falls ill? If you want to get involved in our fight for COVID-19 leave for per diem nurses, please email Claude.Joseph@seiu1021.org.