Hospital Nurses Authorize Strike

Nurses at the county hospital, in the midst of heated and lengthy contract negotiations, voted late Wednesday to authorize a strike if negotiations with the county do not resolve a dispute over working conditions.

Eighty-five percent of Ventura County Medical Center nurses who attended a meeting Wednesday agreed to walk off the job if county negotiators do not back down from some of their demands, said nurse Judith Overmyer, co-chair of the hospital chapter of the California Nurses Assn.

“We really don’t want to strike. We’re prepared to if we exhaust every other possibility, but we’re hoping to get back to the bargaining table,” said Overmyer, who said contract talks have been stalled since April, 1993. Overmyer would not say how many of the union’s 200 members voted to authorize a strike, except to say that there was a “strong turnout” at the meeting.

Overmyer said she did not know when a strike might occur. No new negotiating sessions are scheduled with county officials, she said.

Neither Phillipp K. Wessels, the Ventura County Health Care Agency director, nor hospital administrator Pierre Durand were available for comment Wednesday.

Overmyer said the county has insisted on a series of unfair agreements that would undermine the seniority of many nurses.

“The county wants the ability to call off nurses in situations where there is a low-patient census,” Overmyer said.

Many of the union’s members have been denied breaks and harassed in other ways by managers throughout the negotiations, Overmyer said. A mediator has been working for two months to bring the two sides together.