Nurses Win Concessions in Talks With UC

Days before a planned one-day nurses’ strike, University of California negotiators said Thursday that they had yielded to union demands to drop a proposed merit-based compensation system and given the union until 4 p.m. today to accept it.

But negotiations as of late Thursday had not resolved the labor dispute that could lead to the first nurses’ strike against UC’s six-hospital system, and UC officials threatened to take legal action to stop Wednesday’s walkout.

The California Nurses Assn. did not accept the compromise of dropping merit raises. UC spokesman Paul Schwartz said that if the offer isn’t accepted by today’s deadline, it will be withdrawn.

In UC’s proposal, sent to the union on Wednesday, university officials agreed to move immediately to a system of automatic pay increases based on seniority. They retained the right to give one-time, lump-sum bonuses to employees to reward performance, however.

“To change the compensation system of a university is quite an accomplishment,” said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the nurses association, which represents 8,000 nurses at UC’s hospitals throughout the state.

Other issues also remain unresolved.

UC agreed to restrict mandatory overtime or on-call duty to emergency situations or those with other special circumstances, such as a long surgery. Under the old contract, which expired May 1, nurses were expected to work overtime whenever assigned to do so. The union wants to restrict mandatory overtime to governor-declared emergencies or disasters.

The university system also refused to meet nurses’ demands for minimum nurse-to-patient ratios. Schwartz said it would be inappropriate to establish minimum staffing until regulations implementing the state’s own legally mandated ratios are established. UC argues that it cannot maintain the union’s stricter ratios because of a pressing nursing shortage.

UC officials said Thursday that they are trying to secure a temporary restraining order against the union to prevent nurses from striking next week. UC officials allege that a strike would be illegal because the union has not exhausted all negotiating procedures.

Schwartz said the lawyers will file a motion with the Public Employment Relations Board by Friday. The board will review the motion and decide whether to send it to a court for review.

UC’s six hospitals, meanwhile, prepared to reduce patient loads and hire additional temporary nursing staff for Wednesday’s 24-hour strike. Nurse supervisors and medical residents also would be called upon to fill in.

Plans include turning away transfer patients from other hospitals, canceling elective or nonemergency surgeries and diverting less urgent patients to other emergency rooms. Trauma centers and emergency rooms are expected to remain open, however.

UCLA Medical Center, for example, has already begun limiting transfers to its neonatal and pediatric intensive care units.

UC Irvine has canceled outpatient procedures and may cancel some surgeries as well to get down to a manageable population of 180 patients, a spokeswoman said.