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Union Nurses Vote for One-Day Strike at UC Hospitals

Posted on: Saturday, 9 July 2005, 00:00 CDT

Jul. 8--Unionized nurses plan a one-day strike July 21 at five University of California teaching hospitals statewide, including UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. If would be the first nurses' strike at UC and the largest walkout by registered nurses in U.S. history, the union said.

The California Nurses Association represents 8,300 nurses at the hospitals and about 700 nurses at campus clinics. At the urging of union leaders, nurses voted to reject a contract proposed by UC and to authorize a strike.

UC officials said they have already hired replacement workers to fill in for nurses who walk off the job.

UC and the union began bargaining in February to replace a three-year contract that expired April 30. That deal was extended three times -- most recently until Friday. Throughout negotiations, the two sides have been at odds over wage, pension, and health benefits as well as staffing issues.

Union officials said the strike was planned to retaliate against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his attempts to weaken hospital staffing rules and his veto last year of a bill that would have made it illegal for hospitals to ask nurses to lift obese patients on their own.

In 2002, the last time UC bargained a contract with the nurses' union, talks continued past the April 30 expiration date of the prior pact and the CNA planned a statewide strike. That walkout was averted by additional negotiations, but not before hospitals cut services to prepare. UC Davis Medical Center canceled surgeries, refused transfer patients and let beds go empty in the days leading up to the scheduled strike date so they would not have more patients than they could safely treat if nurses were not on the job.

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Source: The Sacramento Bee

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