UC RNs Win Excellent Patient-Centered Contract

Secure retirement, patient care protections will retain experienced RNs

After months of bargaining, RNs at University of California medical centers have reached a contract settlement which enhances patient safety and resolves long standing issues of pension and retirement healthcare security.

The California Nurses Association’s UC RN bargaining team is unanimously recommending ratification of the tentative agreement which covers 10,000 RNs. Nurses will be voting on the settlement in membership meetings later this week at UC facilities in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Davis, and Irvine, and student health centers in Riverside, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, and Merced.

“We are very happy with our new contract—it benefits UC nurses, UC patients, and UC,” said Geri Jenkins, RN, UCSD, and a member of the CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents. “We have won the kind of patient care and staffing protections that will allow us to retain the high-caliber, experienced RNs needed to provide the quality care needed for our complex patient population.”

“Preventing UC from instituting a policy that combines vacation, sick, and holiday pay that would have forced nurses to come to work sick was a top priority of our current bargaining,” said Manny Punzalan, RN, UCLA-Westwood. “This was an important patient safety issue.”

“Equity adjustments to our salaries at the lowest-paid UC medical centers means nurses at UC Irvine and UCSD are being better recognized for the critical role nurses play in the provision of patient care at our medical centers,” said Tam Nguyen, RN, UC Irvine.

Another patient safety issue was a proposal to limit mandatory “shift rotation,” where nurses are required to work day shift, then rotate to night shift. “Shift rotation has been shown to reduce RN alertness and increase medication errors,” said James Darby, RN, UCSF. “The first-time-ever limits on mandatory shift rotation that we won ensure that patient needs are considered.”

The continued protection of pension and retiree health benefits, secured in the agreement, "encourages the recruitment and retention of nurses at UC,” said Ann Brown, RN, Santa Monica-UCLA.

“Improved access to our educational leave benefit means UC nurses will be able to stay on top of the latest advances in nursing, which in turn benefits our patients,” said Carol Majesky, RN, UC Davis.

The RN team was also able to soundly defeat a controversial “wellness” program that would have required nurses to fill out an extensive questionnaire that could be shared with the insurance provider. Sutter Health RNs are battling a similar proposal that is one of the key issues for Sutter RNs who are starting a 10-day strike at Northern California Sutter hospitals this Friday.

Contract Highlights:

1. Three-year contract (expires September 2010)

2. Continued pension and retiree health protection

3. New staffing protections

Rejection of a policy that combines all paid time off into one bank—(Paid Time Off) that would have encouraged RNs to come to work when sick.
First-time-ever limit on policy that forces RNs to work a rotation of day and night shifts called mandatory shift rotation.
Technology Protections. Agreement that new technology will not replace the RN’s professional judgment or the RN’s role in delivery of care to patients.

4. Salaries increases

Across-the-board 6 percent increases at all medical centers this year with increases for future years to be negotiated in the fall of 2008 and 2009
Additional equity adjustments for UC Irvine and UCSD, the lowest-paid UC medical centers.
Increases of up to 8 percent at the student health centers.