Hundreds of nurses at USC hospitals went on strike Thursday, demanding safer staffing levels and better working conditions amid contract negotiations with the university.
The 24-hour strike began Thursday morning as 1,400 registered nurses at Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center took to the streets outside the facility at 1500 San Pablo St. in Boyle Heights.
Nurses at USC Keck and Norris have had to skip breaks and miss meals during their 12-hour shifts due to a lack of resources, according to the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA), the union representing the strikers.
“People just want to eat,” said Michael Lewis Simonton, a registered nurse at Norris since 2014. “People just want to pee.”
Simonton, who didn’t get a lunch or rest break while working in an understaffed ICU on Monday, said that he felt undervalued by the hospital.
“It makes me wonder why I’m here busting my rear end for people who don’t take patient safety as seriously as I take it,” Simonton said.
Tanya Su, a registered nurse at Norris, has also missed many meals and breaks.
“How can we take care of our patients if the nurses aren’t even taken care of?,” Su said.
Nurses skipped 14,631 meals and 6,210 rest breaks last year, according to a CNA press release.
“The break relief situation is currently very dire, with nurses working up to 10 hours without a break to use the restroom or drink water,” said Rudy Cuellar, a registered nurse in the Cardiothoracic ICU at USC Keck and member of the bargaining team, in the CNA press release.
“Adequate staffing of resource nurses would correct this problem, but management has been unwilling to provide [it],” Cuellar said. “As a result, they are compromising our ability to provide excellent patient care.”
Keck Medicine officials said its facilities would “remain open and fully staffed with doctors, nurses and all other clinical professionals” during the strike.
“We pride ourselves in consistently upholding state-required nurse staffing ratios,” Keck officials said. “Our current contract proposal includes an increase in resource staff … generous wage increases and other economic improvements.”
Both parties have not agreed, but Keck said they remain committed to negotiating in “good faith.”
USC Keck and Norris nurses have been bargaining with the university since May 2025, demanding adequate staffing to improve rest and labor conditions, according to the press release.
In July, nurses held an informational picket and voted the following month to authorize Thursday’s walkout.
Barbara Rodriguez, who’s been a registered nurse for 25 years, said the hospital’s response to the nurses’ concerns and requests has felt like “a slap in the face.”
Kayla Holt, an RN for eight years in the ICU, shared a similar sentiment.
“This place can’t run without us, and right now they’re treating us like we really don’t matter,” Holt said.
Simonton, the registered nurse at Norris, said that patient care could suffer if nurses aren’t given proper working conditions.
“Tired nurses are less focused. Less focused people make mistakes,” he said. “The hospital is capable of providing a solution; they just seem unmotivated to do that.”
USC health services are a critical component of the university’s finances, generating the greatest portion of revenue that is higher than tuition.
In the 2024 fiscal year, USC health services generated approximately $3.2 billion, which is 42.75 percent of the university’s annual revenue.
According to a July statement from interim President Beong-Soo Kim, the university aimed to save money as it ended the 2025 fiscal year with a deficit of more than $200 million.
Since that announcement, USC has laid off 713 employees, according to the Morning Trojan live tracker.