Peninsula nurses ready to return to bargaining table

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Nov 14, 2007 | by Tim Simmers

BURLINGAME -- More than a month after a two-day strike, union leaders representing 650 Peninsula nurses were scheduled to return to the bargaining table today with managment of Mills-Peninsula Health Services.

The nurses work at Mills Health Center in San Mateo and Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame. Both hospitals are operated by Mills- PeninsulaHealth Services and are affiliated with the umbrella group Sutter Health.

The nurses walked off their jobs in early October for two days, and management brought in replacement workers.

Before talks broke down in September, not much headway had been made on key union demands: better nurse-to-patient ratios and improved lifting standards for nurses; more break relief; and improved pensions and retirement health-care.

"We're ready to go back to the bargaining table," said June Lyons, a registered nurse at Peninsula Medical Center. "It's really about patient care and safe staffing."

Wages are not an issue, both sides said. Dolores Gomez, chief nursing executive at Mills-Peninsula, noted that the hospitals are offering the nurses a 19 percent salary increase over four years. Nurses currently earn $56.13 per hour, according to Mills-Peninsula officials.

"I'm very hopeful," said Gomez. "We really want to see where the discussions lead us."

Before negotiations broke off in September, talks had been ongoing since May.

Mills-Peninsula submitted what it referred to as its "last, best and final" offer following the last negotiating session.

But Gomez stressed that the hospitals "absolutely want to avoid another strike." She lamented that "talks were going nowhere" when they broke off. She insisted that there are "no takeaways" in the contract offer in health care for the nurses.

The walkout at the two Peninsula facilities was part of a two- day strike by nearly 5,000 nurses at 13 Bay Area hospitals affiliated with Sutter Health.

It was the region's largest nurse strike in a decade.

"We're coming back to the table to bargain," said Shawn Bartlett, lead negotiator for the CNA at Mills-Peninsula. "They need to decide if they're going to care more about nurses and patients, or profits."

Business writer Tim Simmers can be reached at 650-348-4361.

or by e-mail at tsimmers@sanmateocountytimes.com.