KAISER PERMANENTE: OFFERS NURSES NEW DEAL TO AVOID STRIKE

      In hopes of preventing a threatened two-day work stoppage on
 Thursday and Friday, Kaiser Permanente has offered a new wage and
 benefits package to northern California nurses,  San Francisco
 Examiner reports.  The package contains a six-year plan for most
 Bay Area nurses that would freeze wages for one year, followed by
 a two percent wage increase for each of the remaining five years. 
 The package also includes two more paid days off a year.  "Kaiser
 nurses in the Sacramento and Santa Rosa areas would get a
 straight six-year freeze, coupled with annual two percent
 incentive payments contingent upon 'improved patient
 satisfaction,'" Examiner reports.  The nurses have been working
 without a contact since January 30 and staged a one-day strike in
 April (see AHL 4/17).
      AN INADEQUATE DEAL
      Jim Ryder, chief negotiator for the California Nurses
 Association (CNA), said the proposal was "inadequate and the
 nurses had provided management a counter-proposal."  In
 particular, Ryder said "the counter-offer asked for a simple
 salary cost-of-living increase based on the Consumer Price Index. 
 It also proposed a continuation of current benefits," Examiner
 reports.  At the negotiations, CNA pushed hard to allow nurses to
 have more say in patient care decisions.  Tom Debley, Kaiser
 spokesperson, said that "Kaiser hopes to reserve all quality-of-
 care issues for other negotiations at a 'separate table'
 involving all of its 50,000 unionized employees nationwide"
 (Winokur, 7/13).