UC Nurses’ Worries Could Prompt Walkout

University of California nurses, many angry over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s staffing and pension policies, will vote whether to stage a one-day strike at university medical centers and student health centers, the California Nurses Assn. said Thursday.

Union negotiators have recommended that about 9,000 registered nurses at the facilities turn down the two-year UC contract offer during voting that begins next week. The ballot also contains a provision that would authorize union negotiators to call a one-day strike if the contract was rejected.

The union and university agreed Thursday that a one-day walkout at the facilities in Westwood, San Francisco, San Diego, Orange, Davis, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Berkeley probably wouldn’t create a health crisis.

“It wouldn’t shut [the facilities] down,” said Charles Idelson, a spokesman for the nurses association. “But it would be expensive for the university if they have to shuffle the remaining staff around.... And it would send a pretty strong message to the University of California that they need to respect their RNs.”

Noel Van Nyhuis, a spokesman for the university, said the UC facilities would be fully prepared to deal with any job action. “We will ensure that we have safe and proper staffing levels,” he said.

The union said its quarrel with the university stems from the governor’s attacks on nurses’ staffing levels and what many of them perceive as threats to their pensions.

The seemingly bureaucratic dispute has gone public, with the nurses launching a campaign that includes television commercials and picket lines.

A law, passed by the Legislature in 1999 and signed by then-Gov. Gray Davis, required one nurse for every six patients by Jan. 1, 2004, and one nurse for every five patients by Jan. 1, 2005.

Last November, Schwarzenegger issued an emergency order seeking to delay the 1-to-5 ratio until 2008, saying he agreed with the hospital industry that the earlier implementation would exacerbate an already critical shortage of nurses in California. The union objected loudly.

Last month, a judge in Sacramento threw out Schwarzenegger’s order, saying she could not find any legal authority for the governor to issue it.

Despite the ruling, the union said continued opposition from the Schwarzenegger administration threatens the mandated staffing levels. Idelson said the union wanted, but did not get, wording in the contract that specifically guaranteed those levels.

Van Nyhuis countered that staffing levels were not a contract issue. “We have been staffing well within [the levels mandated by] the law,” he said. “We will continue to do so.”

Idelson said the union also failed to get wording that protects the nurses’ existing pensions.

Although Schwarzenegger has retreated on earlier proposals to privatize public employee pensions, the union fears that he still favors the plan and may place it on the June 2006 ballot. “The university has informed us that they intend to make changes in the future,” Idelson said.

Van Nyhuis said that, in negotiations with the union, only the two years covered by the contract were relevant.

“We promised no changes during the life of the contract,” he said. “But there may be changes after that.”