New Strike Threatened by Nurses

Registered nurses at hospitals in Camarillo and Oxnard have rejected a contract offer and vowed instead to launch a four-day strike over the issue of health benefits.

Hospital management says it has made so many concessions and proposals that this latest flare-up threatens the entire negotiation process.

“Every time we turn around, there is another strike notice,” said Armando Azarloza, spokesman for St. John’s Medical Center in Oxnard and St. John’s Pleasant Valley in Camarillo, which are both owned by Catholic Healthcare West. “We have come as far as we can possibly go, and at some point management cannot go further. We are right there now.”

Last December, nurses struck for two weeks over staffing issues, costing hospitals about $1 million in fees for services and replacement nurses. A second threatened strike earlier this month was narrowly averted when management agreed to set up a nursing committee to review and make staffing recommendations.

Now, the nurses, who belong to the Service Employees International Union Local 399, want health benefits free for themselves, though not their dependents. They pay about $22 a month each, a union member said. If no agreement is reached, they will walk out Friday, the union said.

The hospitals proposed to freeze the cost of health benefits for the length of the three-year contract and to increase wages 22%. That increase would be on top of the $1.4 million given nurses at the two hospitals last year to make their salaries more competitive with other county nurses.

Jaimie Mendoza, a nurse and member of the union bargaining committee, said the hospitals fear giving free health benefits because nonunion employees might also demand them. She said the SEIU wants to organize all hospital employees.

“The hospital is forcing us to strike because they are engaged in union busting,” Mendoza said.

Azarloza said the two sides had reached tentative agreement on a number of issues, including discipline and discharge; grievance and arbitration; performance evaluations; transfers; tuition reimbursement; and seniority.

“We have given them the best possible proposal and we will negotiate until the eleventh hour to try and head off the strike,” Azarloza said.

If a strike occurs, the hospitals are not planning to fly in nurses from Denver-based U.S. Nurses Corp., as they did during the last work stoppage. Azarloza said this time they would bring in nurses from other Catholic Healthcare West facilities in Southern California who are looking for overtime.

In a prepared statement, Charles Padilla, administrator of both hospitals, said he was disappointed by the union’s decision.

He said nurses were offered a free HMO plan, which they rejected. Nurses said the plan gave limited benefits and none at Catholic Healthcare West facilities.

“We have made sincere efforts to address the union’s core issues--staffing, union shop, recognition and access,” Padilla said. “We have made significant movements on all of the issues, and in some cases agreed to the union’s proposals in total.”

David Bullock, president of SEIU Local 399, said while staffing was a key issue during the first strike, nurses have other concerns that must be settled before a contract is agreed upon.

“Our demands are not escalating,” he said. “We have retreated from position to position to get an agreement.”

Bullock said other hospitals in the county, such as Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, offer better pension plans and benefits. Community’s director of nursing, Rhonda Spiegel, said the hospital absorbs the entire cost of providing nurses medical and dental benefits.