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June 04, 2002
CA Nurses on the March
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A worsening nursing shortage has emboldened the nurses, but much of the heightened activism also has to do with two rival unions that have seized upon nurses' frustration to launch large-scale organizing drives and push for major contract improvements.
The Times reports that the workplace climate has hospitals on edge. In one case, registered nurses at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido voted in favor of a protest strike in June, even though they are not represented by a union. The nurses and the hospital's governing board disagree about which nurses are eligible for union representation, delaying a union recognition vote.
"Nurses are so willing to organize to deal with patient issues, they're willing to strike before they have representation," said David Johnson, the California Nursing Association's Southern California director.
"When you look at the labor activity around the state and when you look at some of the tough issues that are out there in negotiations, we have to be prepared for a worst-case scenario," said Debbie Goodin, vice president of administrative services at Mills-Peninsula Health Services, affiliated with Sutter Health.
Among the factors making the nurses more restive is consolidation of the hospital industry, especially takeovers by large corporations, said Lois Friss, an emeritus professor of health administration at the University of Southern California.
"When you're in the neighborhood and you're working for your community hospital, they don't come across as big, powerful, important, rich organizations," Friss said. "But when you see a big system, a UC system, you become aware that it isn't individual orders of nuns with one or two hospitals. It's easier to say, 'Hey, maybe we're being taken advantage of and we need to do something about it.'"
The largest contract set for renewal this summer involves 10,000 nurses who work for Kaiser Permanente in Northern California. In 1997-98, when the previous contract expired, the CNA held six strikes--each lasting one to three days--at Kaiser's 47 facilities from Fresno to Sacramento.
Health labor experts tell the Times that several issues are coming together at once. Nurses have grown increasingly upset about working conditions, wages and benefits. They want a share of the proceeds from double-digit HMO premium increases. And they want limits on mandatory overtime shifts and the number of patients assigned to each nurse.
Nationally, the average salary of a full-time registered nurse in 2000 was $46,410, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In California, the average annual salary was $56,140.
Many veteran nurses see less need to work, and not enough young ones are being trained to replace them.
In addition, advances in medical care have meant that patients in regular units are sicker than those treated in intensive care 25 years ago, said Luisa Blue, president of the SEIU Nurse Alliance of California. At the same time, she said, "because of managed care, there is this tremendous pressure to get patients out of the hospital sooner."
Jan Emerson, spokeswoman for the California Healthcare Assn., a hospital industry organization, said registered nurses have an advantage because of the worsening shortage.
"They can threaten to strike and get some concessions," she said. "What they have in their favor is economics of supply and demand."
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