Nurses at Alta Bates Summit, Sutter Solano Reach Contract Agreements with Sutter Health

Nurses at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center on Wednesday reached a new three-year contract agreement with Sutter Health, the Contra Costa Times reports. The agreement includes a traditional pension plan, health benefits for nurses who retire before age 65, a 21.5% increase in wages over three years and the right to binding arbitration over staffing issues. Nurses at Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo approved a similar agreement on Tuesday (Tate, Contra Costa Times, 7/18). Nurses' contracts at seven Sutter Hospitals -- Alta Bates, which has hospitals in Berkeley and Oakland; Sutter Solano; Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley; St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco; Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame; and Mills Health Center in San Mateo -- expired between June 30 and July 5. Nurses at the hospitals voted in early July to authorize a one-day strike on July 17 if they could not reach new contract agreements. However, the California Nurses Association, which represents the nurses, reached tentative agreements with Sutter Health to avert the strike. Nurses at Peninsula and Mills approved their new contracts earlier this week (California Healthline, 7/16). Nurses at Eden plan to vote on their contract agreement on Friday (Contra Costa Times, 7/18).