By Doug Cunningham

Eighteen hundred nurses working in Chicago's public health system are on the verge of a strike over staffing levels, a say in patient care and a range of compensation and benefits issues. Fernando Losada is a spokesperson for the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association representing the nurses.

[Fernando Losada]: "These nurses have put up with appalling conditions in these hospitals for a long time. But it is getting to a breaking point. You know, in all our hospitals pretty much in the country, except for those that serve the ultra rich, the staffing is deplorable. The number of patients that a nurse has to take care of is just too high. And it's a well documented fact that deaths and very bad outcomes occur when they aren't enough nurses to attend to the patients. People don't want to cut services to the public, especially the poor who depend on this county system. But the nurses and our union are prepared to cause a little short term pain for the long-term health of the public health care system."

Ninety seven percent of the nurses have authorized a strike and they're doing informational picketing. Another round of talks is set for March 31st. Nurses have been without a contract since December of 2004.