Nurses in the University of California (UC) system ratified a new contract over the weekend that includes provisions to improve patient safety and secure nurse retention.
This comes after the California Nurses Association (CNA) and UC reached a tentative agreement last week. As a result, CNA canceled its planned sympathy strike with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME 3299), which represents custodians, food service workers and UC Service and Patient Care Technical workers.
Why It Matters
CNA represents more than 25,000 nurses across 19 UC facilities and has been in contract negotiations with the university system since June.
At the time of the negotiations, nurses were dealing with short staffing, cutbacks in resources and overworked employees. As the UC system has expanded over the years, nurses raised the alarm over various “concerning practices,” including the use of shadow beds and long emergency room wait times as a result of management’s prioritization of more profitable elective surgeries.
The new four-year contract includes protections for floating nurses between facilities, disaster preparedness plans and training for nurses, a guarantee that nurses will be included in the sections, design and validation of new technologies, including AI, and retention measures that include improvements to meal and rest breaks and workplace violence policies. The contract also includes an 18.5 percent minimum increase in wages over the life of the contract and caps on health care increases.
“Our work continues to fight for the highest levels of patient care–that includes holding UC accountable to the standards agreed to in our new contract,” Marlene Tucay, a nurse at UC Irvine and member of the bargaining team, said in a statement. “It is our union power that will help ensure the UC stays a public good, rather than yet another for-profit health care corporation.”
What To Know
The nurse's union planned to engage in a sympathy strike on November 17 and 18 alongside other unions within the university system. Originally, AFSCME 3299 planned a joint strike with the University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE-CWA 9119) last week.
The unions said their members voted to strike over the university’s failure to agree on a contract that addressed issues of affordability, recruitment and retention and work-life balance. But earlier this month, UPTE canceled its strike after reaching an agreement with the university system.
The nurse's union was still planning to join AFSCME on the picket lines outside of work hours when it reached a tentative agreement with UC days before the strike was set to take place.
In a statement at the time, Kristan Delmarty, a nurse at UCLA Santa Monica and member of the bargaining team, said the union won important protections to curb “the rampant misuse of floating and ensuring safeguards on artificial intelligence.”
“Going into this round of bargaining, it was our priority to ensure UC nurses were given the resources to care for our patients and ourselves after years of short-staffing and under-resourcing,” she said.
Missy Matella, the UC’s associate vice president for systemwide employee and labor relations, said in a statement that the agreement reflects the tireless work and collaboration of the bargaining team, medical center leadership and systemwide leadership working with the nurses.
“We’re grateful to the nurses and the CNA bargaining team for their partnership and shared commitment to what matters most: our patients and the UC community,” she said. “This strong, forward-looking deal honors the vital role nurses play in delivering exceptional care and advancing UC’s public service mission.”
What People Are Saying
Marlene Tucay, a nurse at UC Irvine and member of the bargaining team, said in a statement: “UC nurses were unified in our demands for a contract that reversed and halted UC management’s growing practice of short-staffing facilities, cutting back on resources, and forcing RNs to do more with less support. As a result of the commitment of all CNA members, we won a contract that will improve outcomes for nurses and our patients.”
Newsweek reached out to the University of California and the California Nurses Association for comment.
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