Tri-City’s Newly Unionized Nurses Could Propose Changes

By Louise Esola, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

Nov. 4–OCEANSIDE —- Now that Tri-City Medical Center’s 700 registered nurses have unionized, big changes could be in store for the hospital that covers Oceanside, Carlsbad and Vista, according to a union official.

The hospital’s registered nurses joined the California Nurses Association this week, becoming the last among North County’s three big hospitals to unionize. Registered nurses at Palomar Pomerado Health in Escondido and Poway voted to join the association in 2002, while nurses at Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas joined in 2003.

The association and the hospital will begin drafting a contract that could result in changes in salaries and give nurses more say in the way patients are cared for, according to Roy Hong, an association organizer who helped Tri-City nurses in unionizing.

“Basically, we are starting from scratch,” he said, adding that union contracts typically include as many as 35 provisions.

Negotiations between union and Tri-City officials could take several months to a year, Hong said.

Mark Weinberg, Tri-City’s vice president of human resources, said Thursday that it’s unclear what could come out of negotiations.

“We will certainly bargain the wages and hours and other terms and conditions for employment,” he said. “I have absolutely no idea (of the specific issues that union leaders) have in mind.”

Hospital board members could not be reached Thursday for comment.

Hong said most contracts for nurses include the same rules. For example, he said, the contract will in all likelihood include a provision that will allow nurses to form their own committee to discuss concerns regarding patient care and to formally present those issues to hospital officials.

“This way, nurses will have a way of making concrete proposals in a real way,” he said. “Often, without that provision in the contract, employers will have joint committees (between managers and nurses) and managers will hand-pick nurses for meetings. Often, nurses will not speak out (in front of their managers).”

Hong said that Tri-City nurses have complained for years that the hospital is run-down and that much of the equipment used by front-line nurses is out of date.

Hospital officials have denied the allegations.

“In terms of our equipment, we never, ever, ever sacrifice patient safety,” said Weinburg, adding that the hospital is more than 40 years old and that officials are already making plans to improve facilities.

In addition to making way for nursing reforms, Hong said, the association will almost certainly push to move nurses from a merit-pay system to a step system that will allow more experienced nurses to collect the highest salaries. Such a system will also regulate pay raises and starting pay based on experience, he said.

“The problem (with merit pay) is that it is subjective,” he said. “If you are a hardworking nurse who happens to not be on the top of the list of a manager who plays favorites, then you get paid less.”

And because of a nationwide shortage of registered nurses, less experienced nurses are often lured with higher salaries than experienced nurses are paid, Hong said.

In a statement released Wednesday, nurses welcomed the union.

“Nurses chose to join because the turnover rate among nurses is very high and we want to retain and recruit experienced nurses to provide the quality care this community deserves,” said Brenda Ham, a registered nurse at Tri-City for 23 years.

Barbara Bogart, a registered nurse at Tri-City for 29 years, said the union will allow nurses to have a collective voice to advocate for patients.

“Nurses need to inject our ideas into this organization which will turn it around so that patients and the community come first,” said Bogart adding that the nurses will work to improve morale and to “make the changes necessary to address the issues of the nurses and patients in a real way.”

—–

To see more of the North County Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nctimes.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.