Striking S.F. Nurses Reach Tentative Pact

More than 2,000 striking Bay Area nurses reached a tentative three-year agreement that could end their 16-day-old strike at six hospitals and send service workers honoring the strike back to work, union officials said Thursday.

“Overall, it’s a good, solid contract and it’s one of the best contracts in the country,” said Maureen Anderson, spokeswoman for the California Nurses Assn.

However, she said she did not know whether nurses would ratify the contract in a vote scheduled Friday. “I don’t know what their reaction is going to be.”

She called the tentative contract a victory for the nurses that includes no take-aways, “excellent staffing provisions,” and pay of up to $50,000 a year for some top night-shift nurses by 1990. Anderson credited Mayor Art Agnos with bringing both sides to a tentative resolution.

A spokesman for Affiliated Hospitals, which represented the six facilities, could not be reached for comment.

If the agreement is ratified, nurses will return to work Monday at Children’s, Marshal Hale, St. Francis, St. Mary’s and Mt. Zion in San Francisco and Seton Medical Center in Daly City.

Nurses striking French Hospital in San Francisco are negotiating separately.