Tentative deal would give Stanford, Packard Children’s Hospital nurses 10 to 15 percent raises over 3 years
Three weeks after threatening to go on strike, nurses at two of the Bay Area’s top-ranked hospitals say they have reached a tentative deal that guarantees them significant pay increases over the next three years.
The union representing the nurses announced Tuesday that after a few long negotiating sessions it reached a three-year contract agreement with the hospitals that provides 10 to 15 percent salary increases, additional protections for part-time nurses and new workplace violence policies.
“We feel that we have been able to get good working conditions that protect our nurses at work, allows for work life balance with the part-time positions, and financially, the hospitals are showing nurses that what we do is important,” Colleen Borges, a pediatric oncology nurse and the union’s president, said in an interview Tuesday.
The Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement (CRONA) has represented nurses at Stanford and Lucile Packard Children’s hospitals for more than 50 years. Every three years, the union works with the hospital to negotiate a new contract for its 3,700 members.
In addition to across-the-board salary increases, the contract would provide nurses with increased supplemental pay opportunities such as new incentive payments for those with nursing certifications and higher wages for those who mentor new hires.
It also offers additional protections for part-time nurses and grants nurses the right to be reassigned if they are threatened or assaulted by a patient or patient’s family member.
CRONA’s members will vote to ratify the agreement on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s announcement marks the third time in recent years that the union has authorized a strike but managed to reach an agreement with hospital representatives before walking out.
The last time nurses represented by CRONA went on strike was in the summer of 2000. That strike lasted nearly 52 days and caused more than 30 nurses to resign.