S.F. Hospital Workers Near Pact; Nurses Still Out

Labor leaders for 1,700 medical service workers who struck eight private hospitals reached a tentative settlement with seven of the hospitals Saturday, a union official announced.

Mark Splain, head of Local 250 of the Hospital and Health Care Workers Union, said the agreement was reached with the seven hospitals about 1:30 a.m., after a lengthy bargaining session that included Mayor Art Agnos.

He said union representatives are scheduled to meet today with management officials of the eighth hospital, French Hospital, and expect a settlement.

Terms of the settlement were not announced, pending a ratification vote by union members Monday.

Agnos, flush with victory after announcing the settlement, said his next move was to bring together the negotiating teams in a 12-day nurses’ strike later in the day. About 2,000 members of the California Nurses Assn. are on strike against seven hospitals.

Federal mediator Dorothy Christiansen credited Agnos for the settlement. “Nothing would have happened without him,” she said.

Union Support

Hospital workers, who have been on strike since July 26, will not be returning to their jobs until the nurses’ strike is settled, Splain said.

“We have a back-to-work settlement agreement which calls for a return to work following the ratification of the CNA agreement,” he said. “That’s based on the mutual expectation between us and the hospitals that the CNA bargaining was likely to proceed quickly once a settlement with Local 250 was reached.”

The CNA, whose 2,000 members have been on strike at seven of the eight private hospitals since Aug. 2, is fighting for pay increases. CNA representatives say that bargaining between the hospitals and striking nurses will quickly follow any settlement with the service workers union.

The hospitals have remained open during the strikes but curtailed and shifted some services.