2-Day Sickout by Nurses Ends but Pay Rift Is Still Unsettled

Registered nurses at Los Angeles County-run hospitals returned to work Saturday, ending a two-day sickout they had staged to protest salary and working conditions.

County officials said their check of the hospitals showed that the nurses were back at work. A representative of the nurses’ union said at least 2,000 nurses stayed away from work in the sickout.

“Everything went well today. Today was fine,” said Jim Ellman, the county’s chief contract negotiator, of the nurses’ return.

Talks Are Halted

The nurses launched the sickout Thursday after their contract expired and negotiations with the county stalled. County officials said they decided to stop the latest talks at 3 a.m. Saturday after insisting that the nurses return to work and their union accept the intervention of a state mediator. No new talks are scheduled.

Union officials, however, said the county abruptly left the negotiating table right as they were preparing to offer the county a counterproposal.

The sickout hit hardest at Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center in South Los Angeles and UCLA-Harbor Medical Center in Torrance. To cope with the shortage, the hospitals put administrators and other personnel to work in the wards, transferred some patients to other hospitals and canceled elective surgery.

With the nurses back, the hospitals quickly returned to routine operating procedures.

“Things are pretty much back to normal. It obviously was a tremendous relief for us,” said Dr. Eric Snoey, a senior resident in the UCLA-Harbor emergency room. “I didn’t resent at all them going out and I think most physicians felt that way because of the stress this entire system is under.”

At the UCLA-Harbor emergency room, nurses were greeted by a big sign welcoming them back that a physician had drawn on their assignment board.

Mary Reynolds, a nurse at Martin Luther King’s obstetrics department, said she had no regrets about staying home two days.

“Whether we got our message across is too soon to tell,” Reynolds said. But she added, “Fighting for a good cause makes me feel good.”

One of Reynolds’ colleagues who returned to work Friday said the obstetrics ward had been a “mess.” Personnel who had not worked on the floor for years and others not familiar with the routine made it rough going, said Paricsart Radomyos, a registered nurse who said she had to remind a supervisory nurse how to remove a catheter.

Union’s Warning

Officials of Service Employees International Union Local 660, which represents the nurses, warned that nurses could leave their jobs again if contract progress is not made.

“They could start up again at any minute if management doesn’t get serious about meeting the needs of the nurses,” said Abby Height, a union spokeswoman.

After months of negotiations, the nurses’ contract expired at midnight Wednesday without an agreement on wages and increased staffing. A union negotiator said the county is offering the nurses an 11% increase over two years while the union wants a 32.5% increase. Salaries now range from $24,936 to $29,412.