Registered nurses picketed Petaluma Valley Hospital on April 14 to alert community members about the hospital’s dangerous proposals to enshrine its minimum staffing policy in their next contract — a move that would force even more nurses to leave the facility and result in fewer services and a lower standard of care for patients.
“What the hospital’s proposing is that it can send us home 52 times a year without pay. We only work three days a week, but 12-hour days, so 52 times a year is a significant impact on our nurses,” Allison Arnold, a nurse at the hospital, told KQED. The Petaluma Voice also covered the picket.
Since purchasing Petaluma Valley Hospital in 2021, Providence has shuttered its birthing center, instituted frequent closures of its Intensive Care Unit, and left its nurses with no assurance that their next shift won’t be canceled two hours before it starts.
The hospital’s minimum staffing policy, instituted in March 2025, has wreaked havoc on the lives of its nurses, who can no longer be assured they’ll earn enough to support their families and frequently lose work shifts after they’ve already made childcare arrangements.
Since Petaluma Valley started aggressively calling off nurses when the patient census dipped, the number of nurses employed at the hospital has dropped from about 150 to 128. With each shift staffed at the bare minimum, nurses have to scramble when the census suddenly increases or when they find themselves caring for patients with very high needs.
“It keeps me up at night,” Arnold said prior to the picket. “It’s hard not to feel betrayed because I want to believe it when they say they have the community’s best interests in mind, but I know it’s not true. If they can save a penny, they will, even if it means putting patients and nurses in unsafe situations.”
The nurses, whose union is affiliated with the National Union of Healthcare Workers, have filed a grievance over the frequent shift cancellations, which violate their current contract, which expired in March 2025 but remains in effect while a new contract is negotiated.
While nurses are proposing to limit the number of shift cancellations to no more than 12 per year, Providence wants to be able to cancel up to one shift per week, potentially costing nurses one-third of their income because they’re typically scheduled for three, 12-hour shifts per week. In contract negotiations, which have been underway for over a year, management representatives have told nurses, “You can leave” if they don’t like the shift-cancellation proposal.
“We’ve never been put in this situation where we have to choose between working at the hospital we love and being able to provide for our families,” said Courtney Marengo, an emergency room nurse who was born at Petaluma Valley Hospital. “We’re not asking for exorbitant amounts of money; we’re asking to be treated on par with nurses at other hospitals in the area and to know that when we show up for work, we won’t be sent home without pay.”
In contract negotiations, Providence, which has $8 billion in reserves, wants further concessions from Petaluma nurses:
- To continue frequent closures of the Intensive Care Unit, Providence also wants to be able to put ICU nurses on call twice per pay period, in addition to being able to call off their shifts altogether.
- Nurses at Petaluma Valley currently make nearly 20 percent less than their counterparts at Providence’s Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, and Providence is refusing to provide comparable wages for Petaluma nurses even as it cancels shifts.
- Providence is proposing to cut nurses’ retirement benefits by 3 to 6 percent of their salaries.
“We have incredible loyalty to our patients and our community, but Providence is making it impossible to provide the quality care we want our patients to receive,” said Cat Canto, a nurse case manager, who lives in Petaluma. “We know that a good hospital needs experienced nurses who know how to work together for patients, but they’re making Petaluma Valley into a place where no professional can make a living.”
