The State : Pact May End Nurses’ Strikes

A tentative agreement is expected to avert a strike by 1,600 public hospital nurses and could lead to settlements in three other strikes involving nearly 4,000 private-sector nurses, San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos said. “I call on all the parties in the private-sector disputes to take a lesson from the public sector here,” Agnos declared, after announcing that Local 790 of United Public Employees had reached tentative agreement with the city. If the contract is ratified Tuesday, it would stop a strike scheduled the same day at San Francisco General, which serves the poorest people in the city, and at seven other city hospitals and clinics. Agnos said he directed his staff to try and settle the matter before Tuesday’s strike deadline, seeking to prevent an expansion of a labor crisis that so far has involved eight local private hospitals.