Rady Children’s Hospital nurses Sunday evening rejected a last-minute contract offer that would have increased average pay by an estimated 25 percent over three years, opting instead to form picket lines, starting at 6:30 a.m. Monday.
An estimated 95 percent of Rady’s 1,600 nurses, members of United Nurses of Children’s Hospital, voted July 9 to authorize the strike. They said a 22 percent average increase in pay was not enough to bring their compensation in line with those doing similar work at other local medical providers.
The union did not specify the percentage of workers who rejected the hospital’s weekend offer, prompting labor organizers to declare a two-day strike a go, starting with nurses walking off 6 a.m. shifts Monday.
“This proposal does not adequately address the high cost of living in San Diego, the most expensive city in the country, nor does it meet the standards necessary to attract and retain the talented nurses our hospital needs,” said Katie Langenstrass, a Rady nurse and the union local’s executive director.
It was unclear, Sunday evening, how many medical procedures Rady has rescheduled to lessen the hospital’s overall workload during the strike. The union said in its statement Sunday evening that Rady “has opted to import replacement nurses from other states,” to fill shifts vacated by those walking picket lines. Bringing in replacements during strikes is standard industry practice for hospitals, which must remain open and tend to admitted patients who cannot be discharged during a work stoppage.
The latest deal would have increased the base pay raise offered from 8 percent to 9 percent in the first year of a three-year contract with 4 percent increases in the following two years. Increases to other types of pay, including extra hourly cash for working night shifts or for training one’s colleagues, would bring the average estimated increase that nurses would receive to 25 percent.
Rady administrators said in early July that its nurses, on average, currently earn $70 per hour or about $131,000 per year working three 12-hour shifts per week. Most nurses, a Rady vice president said, earn an additional $6,000 to $7,000 per year in extra pay through overtime or special compensation.
Rady nurses’ previous contract, according to the hospital and the union, provided an 11.5 percent increase to base pay over the past three years. While the hospital insists that it pays its workers at market rates, the union has said in previous statements that it believes compensation is about 25 percent lower than at other San Diego County facilities, especially when health insurance costs are included.
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