State Board Seeks Court Order To Prevent Nurse Strike at UC Facilities

The Public Employment Relations Board on Tuesday filed a complaint in Sacramento Superior Court seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent members of the California Nurses Association from carrying out a planned one-day strike at five University of California teaching hospitals on Thursday, the Sacramento Bee reports. A hearing was scheduled for Wednesday at 9:15 a.m. (Rapaport, Sacramento Bee, 7/20).

The issue was brought to PERB by UC officials. Robert Thompson, general counsel for PERB, said the strike could be considered illegal because it is being held before completion of negotiations (Skidmore, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7/20).

The strike would "put patients at risk and effectively shut down the university medical centers," according to PERB (Sacramento Bee, 7/20).

CNA officials said the strike is legal (San Diego Union-Tribune, 7/20).

UC and CNA have not reached an agreement on nurse-to-patient ratios, pension requirements and wages. UC has said its June contract proposal, which was rejected by CNA, is its final offer. The two sides have not scheduled any further meetings (San Diego Union-Tribune, 7/20).

As many as 9,000 nurses are expected to strike beginning at 7 a.m. Thursday (Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/20). UC-Davis Medical Center executive Sharon Melberg said word of a potential court order might not reach nurses in time (Sacramento Bee, 7/20).

Capital Public Radio's "KXJZ News" on Wednesday reported on UC-Davis' preparation for the potential strike. The segment includes comments from Melberg (O'Mara, "KXJZ News," Capital Public Radio, 7/20). A transcript is available online. The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.