UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: Reaches Tentative Agreement with CNA
Hoping to avoid a possible nurses strike, the University of California yesterday reached a tentative agreement with its medical system's 7,500 registered nurses, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Under the two-year contract, nurses would receive a 3% pay raise -- a compromise between the 10% hike sought by union officials and the 1% raise UC officials had offered. The agreement also keeps the current experience-based salary scale, although UC officials had hoped to change to a merit-based scale. Following an all-night negotiating session and the threat of a nurses strike, the agreement was signed early yesterday morning. Francisco Ugarte, a labor representative for the California Nurses Association, called the agreement a "dramatic breakthrough" in the often-contentious, two-month negotiation process (Zoellner, 5/26). Nurses won "a key patient-safety demand," as the new contract will not penalize nurses for taking sick days too close together. The CNA needs to ratify the contract within the next 10 days (Saar, Orange County Register, 5/26).
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