Nurses Union to Vote on Strike

The union representing nearly 8,000 registered nurses within the University of California health system has scheduled a vote next week to authorize a strike at six hospitals statewide.

The nurses and the university have been attempting to renew a labor contract that expired at midnight Tuesday, but talks this week have not produced an agreement. The chief negotiator for the California Nurses Assn., the union representing the nurses, said he doesn’t expect any new talks before the vote Tuesday and Wednesday.

If the nurses authorize a strike, the negotiating team has agreed to give 10 days’ notice before nurses walk off the job at the six hospitals, including UCLA’s facilities in Westwood and Santa Monica.

“We’re really at a breaking point,” said the CNA’s chief negotiator, Joe Lindsay. “None of the major issues have been resolved.”

UC spokesman Paul Schwartz acknowledged fundamental differences between the two sides, but said UC officials want to keep negotiations open. He said another meeting has been scheduled for May 13.

“Ultimately, we’re going to have to work this out together,” Schwartz said. “We don’t think a strike serves anybody’s interest, least of all patients. We would hope that they would look for other options to make progress.”

Specifically, the nurses union wants UC to abandon its merit pay plan and adopt a system of raises based solely upon years of service. The nurses also want the hospital to prohibit mandatory overtime and immediately implement minimum ratios of nurses to patients.

Under the current merit pay system, some 10-year nurses earn less than two-year nurses, said CNA negotiator Maxine Terk, a neonatal intensive care nurse at UCLA Medical Center in Westwood.

“They limit the nurses that have been there the longest and reward the nurses that are coming in at the bottom,” Terk said. “It’s who you know and how they like you, and it’s budget driven. This makes for a major morale problem.”

UC officials defend the current pay system. In its latest offer, UC proposed average pay increases of 13.5% over two years, mostly through merit raises. The only nurses excluded would be those with unsatisfactory performance ratings, which has been about 1% of nurses, Schwartz said.

“We very much believe in a performance-based compensation program in order to continue to properly recognize quality nursing and quality patient care, as opposed to the kind of pay system that CNA wants that really doesn’t take that into account at all,” he said.

The CNA plans to release the results of the strike vote on Thursday. If the nurses actually do strike, it would be the first walkout in the history of the UC system, both sides say.

The UC hospitals are located in Westwood, Santa Monica, San Diego, San Francisco, Davis and Irvine. The nurses union also represents nurses that work at four student health centers on UC campuses.