Nurses Reach Tentative Accord Hours Before Planned Strike

Just hours before their planned strike, registered nurses at St. John’s hospitals in Oxnard and Camarillo reached a late-night deal that would give them a greater voice in staffing levels, which they have sought for nearly a year.

The tentative agreement would set up a staffing committee of nurses and management with two levels of arbitration. If the two sides can’t agree on staffing needs, an arbitrator would be called in. If one side remains unhappy with the result, a second arbitrator would step in to make a legally binding decision.

Lisa Hubbard, a spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union, which represents the nurses, said the plan is unprecedented in California and perhaps the nation.

“This is the only contract I know of in California that not only gives nurses the right to sit down and talk about staffing with management but also gives them arbitration,” she said Thursday. “It’s extremely rare in today’s era of managed care and cost-cutting.”

The nurses were pleased with the potential deal and also with what they describe as a new and positive attitude from management.

“It’s a very big victory for us,” said nurse Jaimie Mendoza, a member of the bargaining committee that reached its deal after 10 p.m. Wednesday. “I don’t think it was a matter of us scaring them, they simply recognized the reality of the situation.”

Mendoza said other hospitals have nursing committees that make recommendations, but few include two levels of arbitration.

“This is fantastic for nurses, the community and the hospital,” said emergency room nurse Susan Franks, another member of the bargaining committee. “I think we definitely set a precedent--if you organize and put your foot down, you can win.”

For months, hospital managers maintained staffing was their prerogative alone but they seemed to have softened.

“We made a positive move to avert the strike,” said Armando Azarloza, spokesman for the two private hospitals. “I don’t see this in any way as giving up management’s rights. Staffing is still a management decision, but this is a realization that nurses have a role to play.”

Three other Catholic Healthcare West hospitals in San Francisco and Daly City are also negotiating over staffing.

“Our hospitals have always wanted the input of nurses but the sticking point has been what to do if we don’t agree,” said Marilyn Morrish, vice president for labor and employee relations for Catholic Healthcare West, the parent company of the St. John’s hospitals. “Everyone has been trying to come up with some kind of solution.”

She said the tentative agreement in Ventura County will very likely be looked at and possibly copied by some of Catholic Healthcare’s other 47 hospitals in California, Arizona and Nevada.

Nurses at St. John’s are still negotiating issues regarding medical insurance, which they contend is too expensive, and retirement benefits. Ten more bargaining sessions are planned and Mendoza hopes to see a final contract by March.

Management recently gave the registered nurses a $1.4-million salary increase that would bring their pay to about $18.50 per hour for less experienced nurses and $29 per hour for veterans. The raise was meant to match pay scales at other local medical facilities.

Since last March, nurses have said high numbers of patients for each nurse were creating poor staff morale and potentially dangerous situations for patients. In December, the nurses launched a two-week strike when talks over staffing failed to result in a deal. The strike cost the hospitals more than $1 million.

A second strike, set at four days this time, was to begin Thursday. The hospital flew in 80 replacement nurses from Denver-based U.S. Nurses Corp. in the event they were needed as they were during the earlier work stoppage.

St. John’s administrator, Charles Padilla, was unavailable for comment Thursday but said in a statement the two sides were “well on the way to reaching consensus on a contract.”

“We support our nurses and want them to continue to care for their patients without the disruption of [a] strike,” he said. “Patient care is, and always will be, our highest priority.”