Nurses Set Monday as Deadline for Strike
Los Angeles County nurses have set 9 p.m. Monday for a strike unless they reach agreement on a new contract. While most of the 40,000 county employees whose contracts expired Oct. 1 have been offered no pay raise, the 4,500 county nurses have been offered a 5.5% pay raise effective Nov. 1.
Dan Savage, research associate for Service Employees International Union, Local 660, said, “The 5.5% for the first year and no guarantee (of a pay raise) the second and third year is inadequate.” County nurses, paid an average of $38,000 a year, earn 10% less than nurses in the private sector, Savage said.
County nurses stayed off the job for three days in 1988 until they were ordered back by a judge.
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