Mercury News
About 100 nurses picketed Tuesday morning outside Children's Hospital Oakland in the opening salvo of a strike planned to last three days and involve nearly 800 union members.
The hospital remained mostly operational, with 125 contract nurses brought in to work 12-hour shifts. A handful of elective surgeries were postponed, but otherwise patient services were at "near normal" levels, hospital Chief Nursing Officer Nancy Shibata said.
Hospital officials declined to say how much the strike accommodations would cost, but union officials estimated the figure to be $1 million, including pay, housing and meals for the temporary workers.
The primary point of dispute between the hospital and the nurses is health care benefits. Nurses union officials are rejecting what they call "take-aways" that could cost members up to $4,000 a year.
Costs for the hospital to insure its employees, meanwhile, have risen $17 million, or 80 percent, in the last five years, Shibata said, with premiums up $5.5 million in the last year alone in California health insurance quotes.
The California Nurses Association is arguing that as health care providers, nurses know better than anyone how important coverage is. With several local unions being forced to make health care concessions in recent contracts, "It's up to us to draw a line and make that stop," said Susan Segal, who has worked at the hospital more than two decades and was elected to represent the union in negotiations.
"To begin with, we're nurses," Segal said. "We understand the impact on people's life that health care has. People need it, and traditionally, nurses have not had to contribute (to their premiums)."
Nurses at Children's Hospital are already behind industry trends, Segal said, because most nurses elsewhere get free treatment at the hospitals where they work, an option not available to those who work in a center that serves only children.
Shibata, however, said that while nurses in the rest of the country have endured furloughs and pay cuts, Children's Hospital nurses received raises of 5 percent and 6 percent each of the last three years under a contract they signed before the recession began. Beyond that, she added, federal health care reform, while offering the benefit of keeping more people covered under more situations, has proved more expensive to the hospital's bottom line.
"Insurance is covering dependents until they're 27," she said. "And there's no caps on treating chronic illness. Those may be good things, but they're not free."
Negotiations began in May and the existing contract between the hospital and the union expired in July. Officials said teams from the two sides have met almost 30 times to negotiate with health care being the sticking point.
The union last offered the hospital a contract proposal Sept. 29. The hospital had neither accepted the deal nor offered a counter when the union announced its strike plans two days later.
When the strike ends Thursday, the hospital will "welcome our employees back," Shibata said. The next negotiating step will be for the hospital to either accept the union's plan or offer a new proposal. Shibata said a new proposal is already in the works and should be finalized soon.
"We'll look at anything they propose," union negotiator Martha Kuhl said. "It doesn't mean we'll accept it, but we'll look at it."
The hospital remained mostly operational, with 125 contract nurses brought in to work 12-hour shifts. A handful of elective surgeries were postponed, but otherwise patient services were at "near normal" levels, hospital Chief Nursing Officer Nancy Shibata said.
Hospital officials declined to say how much the strike accommodations would cost, but union officials estimated the figure to be $1 million, including pay, housing and meals for the temporary workers.
The primary point of dispute between the hospital and the nurses is health care benefits. Nurses union officials are rejecting what they call "take-aways" that could cost members up to $4,000 a year.
Costs for the hospital to insure its employees, meanwhile, have risen $17 million, or 80 percent, in the last five years, Shibata said, with premiums up $5.5 million in the last year alone in California health insurance quotes.
The California Nurses Association is arguing that as health care providers, nurses know better than anyone how important coverage is. With several local unions being forced to make health care concessions in recent contracts, "It's up to us to draw a line and make that stop," said Susan Segal, who has worked at the hospital more than two decades and was elected to represent the union in negotiations.
"To begin with, we're nurses," Segal said. "We understand the impact on people's life that health care has. People need it, and traditionally, nurses have not had to contribute (to their premiums)."
Nurses at Children's Hospital are already behind industry trends, Segal said, because most nurses elsewhere get free treatment at the hospitals where they work, an option not available to those who work in a center that serves only children.
Shibata, however, said that while nurses in the rest of the country have endured furloughs and pay cuts, Children's Hospital nurses received raises of 5 percent and 6 percent each of the last three years under a contract they signed before the recession began. Beyond that, she added, federal health care reform, while offering the benefit of keeping more people covered under more situations, has proved more expensive to the hospital's bottom line.
"Insurance is covering dependents until they're 27," she said. "And there's no caps on treating chronic illness. Those may be good things, but they're not free."
Negotiations began in May and the existing contract between the hospital and the union expired in July. Officials said teams from the two sides have met almost 30 times to negotiate with health care being the sticking point.
The union last offered the hospital a contract proposal Sept. 29. The hospital had neither accepted the deal nor offered a counter when the union announced its strike plans two days later.
When the strike ends Thursday, the hospital will "welcome our employees back," Shibata said. The next negotiating step will be for the hospital to either accept the union's plan or offer a new proposal. Shibata said a new proposal is already in the works and should be finalized soon.
"We'll look at anything they propose," union negotiator Martha Kuhl said. "It doesn't mean we'll accept it, but we'll look at it."
