The California Nurses Association announced last week that
the 10,000 registered nurses employed at
of
ratified a new three-year contract, marking the end of an 11-month bargaining
process between CNA and the university.
The contract, which expires in September 2010, includes a
6-percent wage increase across the board, increases of up to 8 percent at
student health centers and additional raises for UCSD and UC Irvine nurses, who
are the lowest-paid in the UC system.
“Our nurses play a vital role in the delivery of excellent
health care that UC is known for, and this contract continues the university’s
practice of providing competitive, market-based increases for the nurses in
this bargaining unit throughout the UC system,” Howard Pripas, UC executive
director of labor relations, said in a statement.
In addition to increasing wages, the contract limits the use
of mandatory shift rotations, which force employees to switch from day to night
shifts, often compromising their performance. The nurses also rejected a “paid
time off” program that would combine sick leave and vacation days into one
pool, arguing that the initiative would encourage nurses to go to work ill.
CNA’s UC Director Beth Kean said there has been overwhelming opposition to the
PTO program since it was first proposed, and that she is relieved that the
university has acknowledged it.
“[The university] finally realized that nurses did not want
it,” she said. “That was a big victory for us.”
Kean added that the contract’s technology restrictions — which
prevent new technology from replacing nurses’ roles in delivering care to
patients — signify a triumph for patient safety.
“We don’t want some kind of computerized protocol replacing
a nurse’s judgment,” she said.
Nicole Savickas, human resources and labor coordinator for
the UC Office of the President, said the university was disappointed that the
nurses refused to implement the PTO program, especially since they rejected the
recommendation in the neutral fact-finding panel’s report. However, she said
that overall, she is pleased with the outcome of the negotiations.
“Ultimately, UC believed it was important to compromise on
this issue in order to reach agreement for our nurses,” she said. “We are
absolutely satisfied with the agreement.”
Kean said she is excited about the university’s willingness
to compromise, but said its timing is interesting, considering that the Higher
Education Employer-Employee Relations Act would have enabled CNA to begin
organizing for a vote to strike if an agreement had not been reached this
month. The fact-finding period ended on March 10, and the final bargaining
session took place March 13-15.
“The fact that UC made no movement in 11 months of
bargaining, then dramatically changed [its] bargaining posture three days after
CNA was legally allowed to start organizing for a strike vote is not a
coincidence,” she said.
The threat of strike is a grave one, she said, citing a
similar situation in the Bay Area, where 10,000 nurses at Sutter Health
facilities are scheduled to today conclude a 10-day strike.
Kean said the patient safety issues addressed in the nurses’
contract are prominent throughout the state, and said she hopes to use this success as
leverage for medical workers battling similar initiatives such as the PTO
program. She said CNA plans to coordinate with the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees, which has been fighting since August
2007 to secure a contract for the university’s 11,000 patient care technical
employees.
“UC has a long-term plan to shift benefit costs to its
employees and to resist any increased voice and power of the unionized staff in
terms of benefit protections and other employee protections,” she said. “If CNA
had not been successful in fighting off PTO, it would have been very difficult
for the AFSCME units to resist it.”
