Tension between nurses at Bakersfield Memorial and Mercy hospitals and the hospitals' management is increasing as both groups try to hammer out a contract. Below is a story I wrote in today's paper about a demonstration the nurses held last night and what both sides are saying about the negotiations.

Nurses decry negotiations for new contracts

BY EMILY HAGEDORN, Californian staff writer
e-mail: ehagedorn@bakersfield.com

Nurses from Bakersfield Memorial and Mercy hospitals protested unsatisfactory contract negotiations Wednesday night.

The nurses want the hospitals to adopt the "master contract" most other Catholic Healthcare West hospitals have and put nurse-patient ratios into the contract, among other things.

"If there's no movement, we'll have to do whatever we have to do," Diane Hirsch-Garcia, negotiator with the California Nurses Association, said to the crowd of about 75.

Memorial nurses haven't brought the master contract to the table yet, trying to get smaller issues out of the way first, the nurses negotiating the contract said.

Memorial has tried to compromise with them on some issues, said Ken Keller, Memorial's vice president for physician and business development. The hospital offered to raise nurse salaries 18 percent over three years, he said.

Nurses on the bargaining team say Memorial has turned down most of the proposals without giving counteroffers.

"It has not been a good-faith negotiation process," said Babylynn Castillo, a Memorial medical surgery/orthopedics nurse.

The Memorial nurses want breaks ensured on weekend and night shifts, they said.

They want language in the contract that ensures a certain ratio of nurses to patients. Certain nursing ratios are already mandated by law, but they want extra protection in case that law is repealed.

Keller said the master contract is more restrictive than the current contract, which the hospital has had with the nurses for 16 years.

Mercy's management did not want to comment, said Sandy Barker, Mercy marketing and communications manager.

Negotiations at Mercy haven't yielded much success, said Mary Lynn Briggs, a Mercy nurse and member of the negotiating team.

If the hospitals' managements don't "make significant movement" toward the master contract, the nurses plan to meet Sept. 20 to decide what to do next, they said.