USC Keck and Norris Nurses Strike for Seven Days Over Healthcare

Nurses at USC Keck Hospital and Norris Cancer Center in Los Angeles, represented by California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU), went on a seven-day strike. 

Nurses are striking over USC’s proposal to restructure employee health care plans that ultimately force RNs to seek care at USC hospitals. RNs warn that introducing hundreds of RNs and their families into USC facilities will overload an already strained network, leading to longer wait times and delayed care for both employees and existing patients. 

Since January 2026, USC nurses have been paying higher out-of-pocket costs for health insurance that provides less access to providers across the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Whereas some nurses had enjoyed a no-premium option that allowed them to see preferred providers at hospitals of their choice, they will now have to switch to USC providers and pay out of pocket.

Nurses say USC has removed the no-premium health plan as a bargaining tool, prioritizing leverage at the table over addressing RN concerns about patient safety and RN recruitment and retention.

“Instead of improving access to care, USC has made the no-premium health plan worse and is using it as leverage in negotiations,” said Valerie Hernandez, RN in the telemetry unit at USC Keck. “Nurses shouldn’t have to bargain for basic health care while providing it to others.”

USC Keck and Norris RNs voted overwhelmingly to authorize the strike at the end of January. They have been in negotiations since May 2025 for a new contract with little to no movement on key issues. The RNs urge management to invest in nursing staff and agree to a contract that provides:

• Affordable, comprehensive health care coverage for employees and their families;
• Improved staffing resource hours that meet the needs of patient safety; and
• Improved retention measures to reduce turnover and protect continuity of care.

Since bargaining began in May 2025, nurses have held several informational pickets, a one-day strike in October to call attention to the lack of resource nurses leading to thousands of missed meals and breaks, and repeated attempts to resolve these issues at the bargaining table, all of which have been met with inadequate responses from USC management.