Page One Archive

August 2008 —

Bargaining for a New Nurses’ Contract Begins

UC has begun reopener negotiations with the California Nurses Association.  The first bargaining session was held June 29-30th at UC Davis medical center. 

The University and CNA have a current contract in place through September 30, 2010 for UC nurses.  These negotiations will be limited to the issues of wages, health and welfare benefits, retirement benefits, and one issue chosen by each party.  For the purpose of these negotiations, UC has opened the article on association rights, and CNA has opened the staffing article. 

We want to be sure that nurses receive accurate and timely information about what’s going on at the bargaining table.  To that end, we will be providing nurses with informational updates immediately following each bargaining session, and we encourage you to visit this site frequently and to also ask questions of your supervisor or local human resources office throughout the negotiation process.

In this first session, the University and CNA discussed their initial demands.  Highlights of the proposals that were exchanged are as follows:

Retirement Benefits

·         UC Proposal: Unlike employees at other institutions, UC employees have not contributed to the UC Retirement Plan (UCRP) for the last 17 years.  Over that period of time the University redirected employee UCRP contributions – which are approximately 2% of pay – to the University’s Defined Contribution Plan (DCP). To ensure the long-term health of the UCRP, however, contributions from both the University and its employees may be needed in the near future. To help protect employees’ salaries, including nurses’, the current proposal calls for ending the redirection of contributions to the DCP and returning those contributions to the UCRP.  According to the proposal, the University will contribute an amount at least equal to that of employee contributions. The University proposes that CNA agree that nurses contributions return to the UCRP along with other UC employees.  If additional employee contributions to the UCRP become necessary, the issue would be subject to further negotiations. 

·         CNA Position: No end to the redirection of UC nurses’ contributions to the DCP in order to fund the UCRP.

For more information on the UC Retirement Plan click here.

Health Benefits

·         UC Proposal: Nurses receive the same UC health coverage as all other UC employees, at the same cost, without further negotiations.  UC is committing that the cost of health coverage would be subject to negotiation, however, if it proposes that UC and employees would not equally share the average costs increases, if any, during the life of this Agreement.

·         CNA Position: No changes to UC health plans, and no cost increases for nurses. No changes to retiree health.

Compensation

·         UC Proposal: Nurses are critical to maintaining the excellent patient care that UC is known for, and the University recognizes that competitive compensation is key to attracting and retaining quality nursing staff. UC will again propose salary increases as part of these negotiations to ensure that our nurses’ compensation remains competitive with the market. We are currently analyzing market information and will present our wage proposal at future bargaining sessions.

·         CNA Position: CNA has proposed specific increases.

Association Rights

·         UC Proposal: The University has proposed the University will continue to pay up to 12 hours of paid release time for nurse representatives to perform their union duties.  The University proposes that the union will reimburse the University for all time beyond 12 hours, consistent with the reimbursement practices of other UC unions. 

·         CNA Position: CNA has not made a counter proposal at this time.

Staffing

CNA opened the Staffing article for these negotiations.  UC is investigating whether some of CNA’s proposals go beyond the scope of these negotiations.

·         CNA Proposal: CNA has proposed significant restrictions on floating and staffing.

·         UC Position: The University is assessing CNA’s proposal, and how the parties can balance patient care needs with nursing needs.  UC believes that current contract language addresses the patient care and individual RN needs.

The next session is scheduled for August 11 – 12 at UC San Francisco Medical Center.