Nurses, San Joaquin County reach deal and avert strike
Mar. 15—Registered nurses in San Joaquin County ratified a new three-year contract this week, avoiding a potential strike.
The California Nurses Association and National Nurses United said the agreement comes after nurses issued a three-day unfair labor practice strike notice to San Joaquin County. The strike was to begin March 9.
Contract negotiations began nearly a year ago.
“This has been a long, hard-fought victory for San Joaquin County nurses,” registered nurse Kelly Mertz said. “With this contract, San Joaquin County can be a competitive health care employer — meaning it can recruit and retain experienced nurses and avoid staffing crises. Our collective union power, our solidarity, and our commitment to each other and to patient safety brought this monumental contract to reality.”
Contract stipulations include improvements to nurse, health care worker, and patient health and safety, with county commitments to maintain a stockpile of personal protective equipment and nurse access to the hospital’s Workplace Violence Committee. The contract also includes improved non-discrimination language as well as wage increases that CNA said will keep the county competitive with the region’s health care employers and boost recruitment and retention of nurses.
“The fully executed agreement is expected to be complete in the next few weeks and once it is, it will be uploaded to the SJC Human Resources website, as all County labor agreements are,” San Joaquin County spokeswoman Hilary Crowley said.
The agreement will go before the Board of Supervisors for adoption on March 25 with an effective date of April 7.
Crowley said the nurses pay scales are not included in the agreement but rather updated into the county’s salary grade and will become effective after the board adopts them.
Nurses held a one-day strike in January, claiming the county was engaging in unfair labor practices.
At that time, the county said the two sides had agreed to 18 tentative agreements, with 20 unresolved issues. The county provided CNA with a revised “last best and final offer” that included an increase to
base wages, bringing the overall value of the county’s proposal to $54.4 million. When the
county’s negotiation team asked CNA to take the proposal to their membership for a vote, the
county says they refused. They were told by nurses representatives that they would not ask
their members to vote on items not tentatively agreed upon.
The county declared an impasse and initiated formal impasse procedures.
Prior to reaching a new agreement, starting pay for a registered nurse in the county was $105,539 and could go up to $128,273, according to the county’s published pay schedule.
The new contract will expire in April 2028.
CNA represents more than 1,000 registered nurses throughout San Joaquin County, including public health and county jail nurses, and registered nurses at San Joaquin General Hospital.
