Nurses to benefit from new contracts

The UC Office of the President and the California Nurses Association reached a new agreement to increase the wages and benefits of nurses within the UC medical system, said Nicole Savickas, a UCOP spokeswoman.

UC nurses will see increases in salary, health care and retirement benefits.

Negotiations began for the new contract in August of 2008 as part of an opener clause in the California Nurses Association’s old contract, spanning 2007-2010, Savickas said. The agreement was reached on Jan. 30, she added.

The new contract provides for $32 million dollars in wage increases through Sept. 30. Hospital revenues will fund this salary increase, Savickas said.

The contract’s health care and retirement benefits now meet the same standards as all other University of California service employees, she added.

The new agreement improves the staffing language of the current contract with the UC, a serious issue among nurses, said Elizabeth Keane, the California Nurses Association director for UC hospitals.

The goal of the contract is to ensure that enough nurses are staffed based on patient needs, as well as ending the practice of floating adult specialty nurses to delivery or postpartum duties, she added. This will allow nurses to take appropriate breaks and provide the optimum amount of care.

The new language of the contract will affect more than 10,000 California nurses, including more than 3,000 nurses working in the UCLA and Santa Monica area, Keane said.

She added that staffing issues are ongoing and bargaining will begin in six months to improve the staffing language of the contract.

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