St. John’s Hospitals Give Striking Nurses a Raise

While negotiations between striking nurses and management at St. John’s hospitals remained deadlocked Wednesday, the administration gave the nurses a $1.4-million raise anyway.

The 11% raise has been on the table for weeks, but nurses say staffing is the big issue, not money.

“They continue to talk about money while the whole issue has always been patient care and staffing,” said Susan Franks, an emergency room nurse and member of the union bargaining committee. “The raise makes no difference except to make me think they don’t care at all about our message.”

Fellow nurse Jeri Bell agreed.

“They are adamant about talking about money and we are adamant about talking about patient care,” she said.

The nurses say each day of negotiations is like the last--they propose staffing changes, the hospital talks money, and talks stall.

Hospital administrators disagree. They say staffing ratios are in line with both state and federal standards. The problem is a nationwide nursing shortage, not something specific to the two hospitals, they say.

“For the last three weeks we have asked the union to discuss our salary ladder . . . and the union flatly refused,” said Eric Rose, a hospital spokesman.

Rose said when the union refuses to discuss salaries, it hinders staffing because wages are key to attracting employees.

Nurses say they are overworked and overloaded with patients at both St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard and St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo. The nurses, who belong to the Service Employees International Union Local 399, declared a two-week strike Dec. 13 and have picketed the facilities daily.

They say they want a permanent voice regarding staffing and patient-to-nurse ratios. The hospital has responded with pay increases and says staffing levels are a management prerogative.

The pay hike would bring the hospitals in line with pay at other regional private hospitals, at about $18.50 an hour for inexperienced nurses to $29 an hour for veterans.

The hospitals are owned by Catholic Healthcare West.

Rose said the pay increase will go into effect the next pay period.