Kaiser Permanente workers across the state began picketing began at 7 a.m. Tuesday in a one-day strike over a new contract for mental health and optical employees. Thousands of workers took to picket lines in Northern and Southern California over a contract dispute involving 4,000 employees who are members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, a NUHW representative said. Those workers include NUHW-represented mental health clinicians, clinical psychologists, licensed ......

Thousands of registered nurses from nine Bay Area Sutter Health-managed hospitals are striking Thursday and plan to participate in rallies to protest concessions management is seeking in five contracts. Some 4,000 nurses went on strike 7 a.m. Thursday, and plan to strike a full 24 hours, according to the California Nurses Association. The nurses' contracts have been in negotiations for months, but discussions have reached an impasse, CNA spokesman Charles Hardy said. He alleged ......

A mechanic working for a party bus company in San Francisco's Bayview District was killed Thursday when a bus he was working on rolled back on top of him, state safety officials said today. Walter Pietila, 58, was killed in an accident reported at 11:59 a.m. Thursday at a maintenance yard owned by California Experience LLC at 355 Selby St., according to Dean Fryer, spokesman for the state Division of Occupational ......

Maritime operations were returning to normal at the Port of Oakland Tuesday morning after a daylong port blockade along the West Coast, port officials said. Demonstrators have dispersed from the Port area, officials said Tuesday morning. "Occupy Wall Street" members from different Bay Area contingents picketed early Monday through early Tuesday morning to shut down the Oakland port to stand in solidarity with International Longshore and Warehouse Union members in ......

Updated Nov. 2, 2011 at 8:55 p.m. More than three thousand Occupy Oakland protesters shut down the Port of Oakland, the nation's fifth busiest port, late Wednesday afternoon. The protesters stopped traffic into and out of the port. About 200 workers arriving at the port for their 7 p.m. shift were told to go home, according to Craig Merrilees, communications director for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. "They couldn't ......