Apr 1, 2008

Nurses' strike over but contract dispute lingers

By Tim Simmers / Bay Area News Group

Hundreds of Peninsula nurses with Sutter Health-affiliated hospitals returned to work Monday after a 10-day strike.

The strike affected about 700 registered nurses at Mills-Peninsula Health Services, which operates Mills Health Center in San Mateo and Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame.

The local hospital management brought in 192 replacement nurses during the strike. Hospital officials maintained that the Peninsula hospitals ran smoothly and safely during the walkout.

"There were no surgeries or procedures canceled during the strike, and we had a full house," said Dolores Gomez, vice president of Acute Care Services at Mills-Peninsula.

Gomez noted that part of the reason things went well was that more than 50 percent of the replacement nurses had worked at the hospitals during two strikes staged last fall by the regular nurses, who are represented by the California Nurses Association.

Gomez said half the nurses crossed the picket line during the 10-day strike and went to work. The nurses union disputed that number, saying 95 percent of nurses honored the strike and did not work.

The replacement nurses came from U.S. Nursing, a group that employs nurses from throughout the country to replace striking health care workers.

"They're highly skilled and experienced, and many of them work part time elsewhere and do this to supplement their income," said Margie O'Clair, spokeswoman for Mills-Peninsula. O'Clair said many of them are not paid as well back home and enjoy traveling to the Bay Area.

Paying for the replacement nurses, their travel and lodging cost approximately $2 million, Gomez said.

The walkout by the Peninsula nurses was part of a strike by 4,000 registered nurses at eight Sutter facilities around the Bay. Sutter Health is a nonprofit network of hospitals and doctors groups.

No new contract negotiations have been scheduled. Nurses and management began negotiating in May, but have been unable to settle the dispute.

"We absolutely accomplished something," said Bonnie Castillo, a registered nurse and a spokeswoman for the union. "The nurses stood up against Sutter, advocating for patients, safer staffing and their own health care."
Nurses insist that the dispute is about safe nurse-patient ratios, a need for more help in lifting patients, and increased staffing so they can take meal and rest breaks. They also want to enhance their retirement and health benefits. Salaries are not an issue.

But Sutter Health officials said they believe the real issue is organizing rights for the nurses association and the union's push for a master contract at Sutter facilities throughout Northern California.

As for salaries, many of the Sutter hospitals have offered salary increases ranging from 18 percent to 20 percent over four years. The average salary for a full-time nurse is about $114,000, though few nurses work full-time.

In interviews, both sides said they want to get back to negotiations. But few negotiations were scheduled over the winter after the first two strikes in October and December. Each of those strikes lasted two days.

"We'd like to continue negotiations and work with a federal mediator to settle this," said O'Clair, noting that Mills-Peninsula has a "last, best and final offer on the table."

Genel Morgan, a San Mateo nurse who works at Peninsula Medical Center, said the nurses are "hoping the federal mediator brings us together."

"We're willing to sit down," she said. "We're just asking the hospital to negotiate, not just sit and talk."

Other hospitals affected by the 10-day strike include St. Luke's Hospital and the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco; Alta Bates Summit hospitals in Oakland and Berkeley; San Leandro Hospital; Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley; Sutter Delta in Antioch; and Sutter Solano in Vallejo.