Page One Archive

October 2007 — Page One, Issue 9

CNA AGREES TO DECLARATION OF IMPASSE AND UC'S REQUEST FOR STATE-ASSISTED MEDIATION

[Click here for UC news release]

After six months of bargaining, UC and CNA agreed to jointly declare impasse and request the assistance of a mediator to assist the parties in reaching an agreement.  During the thirty-one bargaining sessions, UC has proposed:

Competitive Wage Increases:  UC offered market-based salary increases for nurses at each of its five major medical centers and ten student health clinics.

Continued High-Quality Healthcare Benefits at Affordable Cost:  UC proposed that nurses receive the same comprehensive healthcare benefits provided to all University employees.  These benefits provide a number of healthcare plans at affordable cost to employees. 

No Substantive Changes in the Retirement Program:  UC has guaranteed that nurses will not have to make contributions to the University’s excellent retirement system through September 2008 and again agreed that the University will not make substantive changes to the system. 

A flexible program for Paid Time Off (PTO):  The University’s proposal would allow nurses to take more days as scheduled vacation than the current program, providing nurses greater flexibility with their time. Six days of sick leave are put into this bank each year, along with all vacation accrual days; if the six single-day instances of sick leave are not used by the nurse, they remain in the PTO bank for future use as either sick leave or vacation leave.  Nurses who use more than six instances of single-day sick leave a year, or who have illness of more than 24 work hours would have access to short-term leave for illnesses.  Current nurses could choose to remain in the current sick/vacation program or enroll in PTO.

Realizing that the parties remained far apart on a number of issues, on October 16th UC proposed that both parties to return to current contract language on all issues except wage increases, benefits and parking, in an effort to ensure that nurses receive the proposed wage increases in October.  This proposal was not accepted by the union, and the University formally proposed a package that includes a number of offers that address CNA issues.  CNA rejected this package, and agreed to declare impasse.

Click here for more information about the UC-CNA impasse proceedings.