Nurses Give OK for Strike

Registered nurses at the University of California’s six hospitals have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike against the prestigious medical system if contract negotiations don’t produce a breakthrough soon, officials at the California Nurses Assn. said Thursday.

About 95% of voting nurses supported a strike in balloting Tuesday and Wednesday, the union said. It refused to say, though, how many of the system’s nearly 8,000 nurses voted.

Union officials have said that they will give 10 days notice before walking off the job. Such notice had not been given Thursday and probably will not be for several days, union officials said.

“I have never seen this level of frustration,” said Rose Ann DeMoro, the union’s executive director. “The nurses are angry, and they’re angry because they’re not being listened to.”

If the nurses strike, it would be the largest job action in years for the nurses union, which represents 44,000 workers statewide. The union’s last major job action came in 1997 and 1998, when it launched six short strikes against Kaiser facilities in Northern California. The union has never gone on strike against UC.

UC spokesman Paul Schwartz said the strike authorization vote is the union’s attempt to “exert maximum influence over negotiations,” which are set to resume Monday. “People need to keep their heads about them. Until they give us some clear indication that they are heading for a strike, we’re going to focus on bargaining.”

If a strike notice is given, Schwartz said, the hospital system may begin closing certain services, such as trauma care, to prepare for a reduction in staff.

Such actions “could seriously impact health care throughout the state,” he added, because UC hospitals play a key role in trauma and specialty care.

The system’s hospitals are located in Westwood, Santa Monica, Irvine, San Diego, San Francisco and Davis. The union also represents about 100 student health center nurses on four UC campuses.

Negotiators remain divided on several key issues as they try to replace a contract that expired April 30.

Specifically, the nurses union wants UC to abandon its merit pay plan and adopt a system of raises based solely upon years of service. Union officials argue that the plan is subjective and that some newly hired nurses are unfairly earning more than veterans.

The nurses also want the hospital to prohibit mandatory overtime and immediately implement minimum ratios of nurses to patients.

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

The union disputes those figures.

The labor environment is far different today than it was in the early and mid-1990s, when nursing unions had little clout and were often forced to accept contracts they didn’t like. In 1994, for instance, the UC system imposed a contract on the nurses eliminating the automatic system of raises based upon seniority.

Because of a prolonged and critical nursing shortage, unions have scored key organizing and contracting victories at hospitals. In 2001 alone, the California Nurses Assn. won 11 organizing elections for 4,500 registered nurses. The union has doubled its membership in five years.

“What you’re seeing is much more total despair and frustration” among nurses, said author Suzanne Gordon, who wrote a book about the importance of bedside nursing. “Thanks to efforts by unions like the CNA, the public is increasingly understanding that nurses deserve better and that there’s a connection between how the nurses are treated and how they’ll be cared for.”

Hospital industry officials say the union has become far more aggressive of late.

“The nursing shortage has definitely added fuel to this whole fire,” said Jan Emerson, spokeswoman for the California Healthcare Assn. “They probably have gained some level of power because of it.”

But Emerson said a strike won’t resolve the underlying problems with nurse recruitment or retention.

“Striking isn’t going to make more nurses magically appear,” she said. “They keep talking about how they’re really concerned about patient care and quality of care, but their actions aren’t demonstrating that. This is purely labor union tactics that very well may put patient care at risk.”

Union officials say they will soon meet with health officials in all of the affected counties to help develop contingency plans for emergency and trauma services. And nurses will be authorized to cross picket lines if a patient is experiencing a life-or-death emergency.

Schwartz questioned whether the union’s strike authorization vote represents the views of all UC nurses. Some 40% to 50% of nurses don’t pay union dues and thus can’t vote, he said.

As with much else in this dispute, the union disagrees with UC’s data.

“If the nurses weren’t serious about this, we wouldn’t be taking this course of action,” said Joe Lindsay, the union’s chief negotiator. “The numbers will speak if necessary when there’s a strike.”