After nearly six months of unsuccessful negotiations with the
University of California, nurses at UC medical and health centers
voted last week to authorize the first strike in their
union’s 21-year relationship with the university.
University officials have been bargaining with the California
Nurses Association, which represents the UC’s 9,000 nurses,
since January.
The nurses’ contract was due to expire in April but was
extended three times, finally expiring on July 8.
Issues under contention include pension plan security, salaries
and staffing ratios. A strike has been scheduled for July 21.
Liz Jacobs, a CNA spokeswoman, said UC salaries are not enough
to keep nurses working at UC medical facilities.
“They’re the lowest-paying hospitals in the
state,” Jacobs said, adding that there is high turnover in
the UC nursing staff due to substandard wages.
Nurses spend a few years accumulating experience at UC
hospitals, then find higher-paying jobs elsewhere, she said.
Jacobs cited the secure pension plan as a major draw for the UC
system.
“You’re not going to get the highest wages out
there, but you are going to be rewarded for dedicating your career
to this institution,” she said.
But now, some nurses fear that even the pension plan is at risk,
and want a secure plan guaranteed by the new contract.
“There’s a national assault on pensions,”
Jacobs said. “What they’re trying to do is turn them
into 401ks.”
UC spokesman Noel Van Nyhuis said the union’s fears are
unfounded and that there has been no decision to replace the
nurses’ pension plans with 401ks.
“There may again need to be employee contributions or
university contributions to the plan, but we don’t know when
that’s going to happen. No decisions have been made
yet,” Van Nyhuis said.
“We’ve guaranteed that there will be no changes for
the life of the contract,” he added. “It’s a
two-year contract. Obviously, we can’t negotiate beyond the
life of the contract.”
CNA also wants a guaranteed patient-to-staff ratio written into
the contract.
“What they’re asking for is to put the current
California law in the contract, and that’s pointless because
we already follow the law,” said Van Nyhuis.
“We’re happy to and obligated to follow the state
law, which is a 5-to-1 ratio.”
But some nurses are worried the law will change, said Michael
Kenny, a nurse at the UCLA Medical Center’s Neuropsychiatric
Institute and a member of the CNA statewide bargaining team.
Ninety-five percent of the nurses who voted between June 22 and
July 7 agreed to reject the UC’s proposed contract and
authorize the union to call a strike.
“I’ve never seen this many RNs come out and be this
angry,” said Kenny, adding that he has worked in nursing for
over two decades.
Both the union and the UC agree that patient safety is their top
priority, and they are making arrangements for patient care in the
event of a strike.
The university has “contracted with a temporary nurse
staffing agency so we can have proper staffing,” Van Nyhuis
said, adding that the UC will do its best to “ensure patient
safety and help mitigate any effects of the strike in terms of
effects of daily operations of the hospital.”
Meanwhile, CNA is making sure to give the university enough time
to prepare.
“We would never do less than a 10-day notice,” Kenny
said.
This amount of advance notice would give the hospital time to
adapt; some patients could be sent to other hospitals, those well
enough to be discharged could be discharged, and workflow could be
decreased for the day of the strike by rescheduling non-emergency
procedures, Kenny said.
“Just because there’s a strike vote, it
doesn’t mean that there will be a strike,” Van Nyhuis
said.
In 2002, during the negotiations for the last nurses’
contract, CNA issued a 10-day strike notice but settled with the
university just one day before the strike was scheduled to take
place.
Emmanuel Punzalan, an oncology nurse at the UCLA Medical Center
and a member of the CNA statewide bargaining team, believes this
year will be different from 2002.
“Right now, the mood in the medical center, in the student
health center, is they want to go out and strike,” Punzalan
said.
“I have seen how the UC treated the other unions,”
he continued. “I believe the UC will try to test the
California Nurses Association to see how committed we
are.”
University officials have raised the concern that a strike may
be illegal, since negotiations are ongoing.
“It is very troubling that CNA is asking UC nurses to take
an unlawful action … in an attempt to intimidate the university
at the bargaining table,” said Howard Pripas, UC director of
labor relations, in a July 8 press release.
No further negotiations had been scheduled as of Sunday.