Nurses End Latest Strike at St. John’s Hospitals
Nurses at St. John's hospitals in Oxnard and Camarillo returned to work this morning, marking the end of a four-day strike, the Ventura County Star reports. Nurses at St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo and St. John's Regional Medical in Oxnard went on strike Friday, calling for better wages, health insurance and pensions (Marquez, Ventura County Star, 3/6). The strike is the third the nurses have held during this round of contract negotiations (California Healthline, 3/1). Chris Slane, an emergency room nurse at Pleasant Valley, said that nurses will not know what impact the strike had until negotiations for a three-year contract resume. "We're hoping the hospital will come back with some kind of a real offer on health insurance that people will use and a better wage proposal that will keep us competitive over the next three years," Slane said. Hospital spokesperson Armando Azarloza said that the strike "accomplished nothing" because hospital services were "not disrupted" and "more than 50%" of nurses scheduled to work during the strike showed up for their shifts. Azarloza said, "The union wants to grandstand. We'd frankly rather be hammering out details of an agreement." A hospital spokesperson said that negotiations are slated for Thursday, but Slane said that it is "unclear" when talks will begin again (Ventura County Star, 3/6).
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