New Nurse Contract Said to Avert Participation in Nov. 20 Strike

Nurses at UCLA Hospital, 1955

From the LA Now blog of the LA Times:

The University of California reached a tentative contract agreement with unionized nurses at its medical and student-health facilities, averting a one-day walkout that had been scheduled for Wednesday.

The four-year agreement still needs to be voted on by the 11,700 UC nurses who belong to the California Nurses Assn., or CNA. Contract highlights released by UC call for annual 4% pay increases through 2017.

The nurses have agreed not to join in a one-day strike on Wednesday in sympathy with a walkout still scheduled by the AFSCME local 3299, which represents 22,000 patient-care workers, custodians and food workers at UC’s five medical centers and 10 campuses...

Joe Lindsay, direction of the CNA’s  University of California division, said Sunday that he expected the membership will be pleased with the contract and approve it in an upcoming vote. Beyond the pay raises, he said a crucial item is that the proposed contract keeps pension benefits for new nursing hires the same as those for more veteran workers...

Full story at www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-university-california-nurses-contract-agreement-walkout-20131117,0,447504.story