Updated at 9:15 p.m., Friday Nov. 11
Nurses voted to submit a strike notice to Sharp HealthCare in San Diego Thursday, after the company declared an impasse in its efforts to reach a bargaining agreement with nurses.
According to the Sharp Professional Nurses Network, 98 percent of 2,203 nurses who cast ballots voted to authorize a strike. Sharp may lose nearly 700 nurses, which will force them to fill the gaps with excessive overtime and doubletime shifts for current nurses.
The RNs plan to strike until Sharp HealthCare addresses the quality of care and nurse retention by paying competitive wages. Sharp is short over 350 nurses, which places excessive pressure on the current staff of RNs, according to union calculations.
“Despite a profit of over $388 million, Sharp is not willing to increase its wage proposal to the level of nurse salaries in other facilities in San Diego,” said a union spokesperson in a statement.
The company held 22 negotiation sessions with the union since July, but were not able to reach an agreement, said Sharp HealthCare company officials.
“We’ve spent months explaining to management why experienced nurses are a necessary part of patient care at Sharp. Unfortunately, management refuses to acknowledge how turnover is impacting the working conditions of the nurses who remain,” said Christina Magnusen, RN, from Sharp Grossmont, in a statement.
“While they claim turnover rates are lower than average, they miss the underlying point that Sharp is bleeding nurses and why it matters.”
Sharp Professional Nurses Network and the United Nurses Association of California rejected Sharp’s latest proposal in October, that offered wage increases of 16 to 26 percent over a three-year contract term, Sharp said.
“With the negotiations at a legal impasse, Sharp has decided to move forward and implement the economic elements of our offer so our nurses can benefit and be rewarded with wage increases and other compensation improvements from our proposal, even though a new contract has not been signed,” said Dan Gross, Sharp Healthcare Executive Vice President of Operations.
A message on the union’s website refuted Sharp’s version of events.
“This is a slap in the face and a clear violation of federal law. It is an insult to our solidarity and our determination to achieve a fair contract,” the message said. “Management’s claim that there is an impasse in our bargaining is false and they know it.”
The average salary for a registered nurse in California is around $100,000 per year and the highest in the nation, according to recently released 2015 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The average RN salary at Sharp Healthcare is approximately $74,900 in San Diego, according to a database of salary reports on GlassDoor.com.
The Sharp nurses contend that large wage increases are needed to prevent their colleagues from moving to other hospitals for better pay. A Sharp spokesman said the company has offered to hike base pay by 16 percent to 26 percent over a three-year period, with nearly half implemented in the first year.
”It is our sincere desire that the union accept our fair and generous proposal without any further delay,” Gross said.
“Sharp wants to end this prolonged negotiation and enter into a new agreement with the union so we can focus our collective energy on not only providing outstanding care to our patients, but also retaining and recruiting the best and brightest nurses.”
There were no plans to hold further negotiations after Friday’s session.
“We are now charging Sharp for additional federal labor law violations at the National Labor Relations Board. Management will be held accountable for their flagrant law-breaking,” the union statement said.
“This coming week, you will hear a lot more from your Sharp RN bargaining team. We are not taking this sitting down. We are going on the offensive. We are going to turn Sharp’s law-breaking into an advantage in our fight for a fair contract.”
City News Service contributed to this post.
