ORANGE : UC Nurses Approve Pay Raise Contract

Registered nurses at UCI Medical Center in Orange will receive a 3% raise retroactive to Nov. 1 and another 3% raise May 1 under a statewide contract approved this week by about 7,200 nurses working for University of California hospitals and clinics.

The previous contract for the nurses expired Nov. 1 but was extended during negotiations between the university and the California Nurses Assn. The two-year contract allows for wages to be renegotiated after one year.

All UC nurses work under the same basic contract, but each hospital and clinic has a separate pay scale.

Differing pay rates have long been a point of contention for UCI nurses, who for several years have sought to earn the same pay as other nurses in the state. The starting pay for nurses at UC San Francisco Medical Center, for instance, is more than 20% greater than for nurses at UCI Medical Center.

When contract talks stalled late in October, UCI nurses held an impromptu one-day sickout to protest pay offers. The job action reportedly was the only one statewide during the contract talks.

The sickout, by an undisclosed number of nurses, forced the hospital to close its trauma center for about 12 hours.

Under the new contract, UCI Medical Center nurses will also receive extra pay for working evening and night shifts and nurses with specialized training will earn an extra $100 a month.