The University of California and the union representing nurses at its five medical centers agreed late last month on a three-week extension to ongoing contract negotiations after the talks failed to cement an agreement.
Contract delay:
“We had some issues we could not resolve by April 30, so we mutually agreed to extend the time to work on these issues thoroughly,” UC Office of the President labor-relations spokesman Noel Van Nyhuis said.
The California Nurses Association, a union representing 9,000 registered nurses at UC hospitals, said that disagreements over recruitment and retention policies have stood in the way of a deal.
“The big issue with UCSD is it has the lowest pay in the county,” said Beth Kean, who oversees the UC nurses’ division for the union. “UCSD nurses get paid $7 to $8 per hour below Kaiser. There is a relative nurse shortage here. Nurses just out of school go to [UCSD] for a few years and then leave to go to other hospitals that pay more to help compensate for the skyrocketing house market in San Diego.”
A bargaining alert sent out by the union stated that UCSD’s pay rate is 6 percent below market wages. According to CNA, this does not allow UCSD to compete with comparable local hospitals.
“There is a 65-percent turnover rate each year — phenomenally high — and with such a high turnover it puts a lot of stress on older nurses who have to train these new nurses all the time and still watch over the very sick patients,” Kean said.
Though a representative for the university was not available to respond, both sides had previously agreed to keep the actual wage proposals under discussion private until a deal was reached.
In addition to wages, the two sides have remained at odds over many points of discontent, including benefits, staffing ratios, pension and recruitment of nurses from nursing agencies. The union has argued that using temporary employment agencies to bring in out-of-state nurses represents a bad use of funds. In such situations, the university has to pay for travel and housing and a fee to the agency, in addition to paying temporary nurses much higher wages than average.
The university maintains that its staffing levels are adequate and in compliance with applicable state law.
Both sides have also disagreed over the $2.4 million in performance incentives paid to top executives at the medical centers earlier this year.
“Nurses are very angry about that,” Kean said. “[The university doesn’t] want to put money in the medical centers that make the medical centers run, but are willing to give huge bonuses to the executives.”
However, the university said that the money was not awarded in the form of bonuses, but as a way to make sure the executives are doing their jobs.
“Our medical center executives did not get a bonus, like CNA tries to portray,” Van Nyhuis said. “They received compensation in two forms: base pay and then incentives when they meet their performance goals. It is something consistent with the industry standards and it actually lags behind comparable hospitals across the country.”
While there has been no decision to strike, the option has not been ruled out.
“In our history of bargaining, we have always come to an agreement,” Van Nyhuis said. “We are very hopeful that when we go back to the bargaining tables on May 16, we will be able to negotiate a fair deal for our nurses.”
However, Kean said union members are taking the possibility of a work stoppage seriously in light of the one-day strike by UC service workers that led to a new contract agreement with the university.
“Honestly, nurses are talking about striking,” Kean said. “They watched the service workers strike and saw how successful that was. The UC is used to having control and not listening to its workers, like the nurses.”
In 2002, talks between the union and the university stalled over similar problems that prevented a deal on a new contract. The nurses voted to strike, but shortly after the vote, negotiations resumed and the two parties reached an agreement.
