Failing to reach a workable agreement after six months of negotiations, the University of California and the California Nurses Association mutually filed with the state Public Employee Relations Board for declaration of impasse on Thursday.
“We’ve been bargaining since mid-April, but it’s been very unproductive,” said Beth Kean, UC Division director for the California Nurses Association and chief negotiator in the recent arbitrations between the two parties.
Following the expiration of the current two-year agreement on Sept. 30, UC and CNA have been deliberating on a number of issues regarding patient care, financial compensation for nurses and an array of scheduling, shift change and sick leave specifics, Kean said.
“We are light-years apart on nearly every issue. Right now the biggest issues are around staffing of (medical) centers and patient safety,” she said.
While both sides have conceded that changes must be made to ensure patient care and the benefits of registered nurses are not compromised in the development of a new fiscally and logistically sustainable plan, there seems to be little progress toward compromise.
“Wages and paid time off are two of the big issues,” said Nicole Savickas, a spokesperson for the UC Office of the President.
UC has proposed a plan for market-competitive wages for nurses including salary increases based on market trends for nurses in each of its five major medical centers at UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC San Francisco, UC San Diego and UCLA.
“Our goal with the proposal is to maintain that level of market-competitive wages” said Savickas, adding that there are many classifications and specifics to calculating market-competitive wage estimates but that UC is committed to such salary adaptations.
CNA and its advocates have raised concerns regarding the reformulation of fair wage estimates on the part of the university hospital system.
“(Typical) salaries are much higher than what UC is offering,” said Kean. “UC is offering a 2 percent increase now and 2 percent more in six months. In Catholic Healthcare West, (nurses) received a 7 percent raise,” she added, noting that Catholic Healthcare West is among the four main hospital chains in California that CNA works with.
Among other things, the two parties failed to reach an agreement on RN scheduling in UC hospitals. Specifically, much concern has been raised regarding the UC’s system of mandatory shift changes for RNs in UC hospitals and the ramifications this can have on nurses and their ability to adequately care for patients.
“Historically it was very typical for nurses to work one week of days, one week of nights,” said Kean, “but, as people noticed that this was unsafe for both nurses and patients, these practices have been outlawed in almost every hospital in California.”
Kean also said that in addition to the faulty shift rotation system, UC hospitals have problems providing adequate relief nurses when nurses need to take breaks and added that it is seldom that an RN takes all of the alloted 75 minutes of break in a 12-hour shift.
“Hospitals are not staffing adequately to cover nurses when they go on their breaks,” she said. “On a 12-hour shift, nurses need to be able to sit down and rest to be most alert.”
Acknowledging this reservation, UC proposed a minimum 48-hour rest period be required of all nurses between all shift rotations, said Savickas.
“We are aware of the difficulties that the shift system can cause,” she said. “The welfare of nurses and the patients they care for are of primary importance in these negotiations. The rest period we proposed was our suggested solution to the problem of asking nurses to shift rotations,” said Savickas.
Kean’s response to this proposal was less than enthusiastic. She said “(UC is) trying to Band-Aid an unsafe system,” and that “it verges on criminal to try to institute this in a UC hospital.”
Manny Punzalan, a registered nurse at the UCLA Medical Center, said that in its attempts to achieve a contract that protects and improves patient care, the CNA is pushing for a policy that would give nurses the option to work night or day shifts permanently.
“When you frequently change your shift, there is an increased incidence of accident,” he said. He added that “the incidence of making medication errors or accidents occurring increases” when shift rotations and minimal breaks are commonplace.
With regard to understaffing and the general shortage of break-relief nurses in UC hospitals, Punzalan said that while he is a senior nurse of 27 years and has never been unsatisfied with his career, there have been days when he felt that he could have done more if there had been more resources available.
He commended the CNA in its efforts to reach a compromise with UC on some very difficult issues.
“The CNA bargaining team is trying to do our best to be able to reach an agreement with UC,” he said, adding, “For us to be able to do that we need to see a movement on the part of the university … requiring a competitive wage proposal, improved working conditions of nurses, and addressing nurses with respect and dignity; that’s not happening right now.”