Registered nurses at three hospitals operated by the Providence Health and Services chain reached a tentative contract settlement early Wednesday with hospital officials at three Los Angeles area hospitals that they say addresses key concerns about staffing and pay equity.

The pact affects Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Centers in San Pedro and Torrance and Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica. The agreements must be ratified by the RNs who will vote on the proposed agreement in membership meetings next week. The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, the state’s largest RN organization, represents 740 RNs at the Torrance hospital, 540 in Santa Monica, and 320 in San Pedro.

The agreement resolves at times difficult contract talks that led to a one-day strike May 1 in Santa Monica and Torrance.

For RNs at the Little Company of Mary facility in Torrance, this will be their first collective bargaining agreement, a fact celebrated by RNs today.

“We fought for our first union contract because we want the best for our patients and that’s why we joined the best nursing union in the nation, CNA-NNU,” noted Torrance Oncology-Telemetry RN Sharon Aaron. “Our union has an excellent track record of fighting for nurses rights and patient rights. CNA-NNU is the union that fought for the safe staffing ratios and safe lift laws in California. How did we get to this point? Organize, organize, organize.”  

“We worked hard for our patients and we want to provide the best possible care for them. Achieving our first union contract with CNA is a significant step in continuing for nurses to advocate for the safety of our patients,” said Sheila Mercado, Torrance Labor and Delivery RN.

“Fighting together as a unified army of CNA nurses within Providence, we laid down a marker for future gains in patient safety and RN standard of living at all three hospitals.  Our patients will be safer and RNs’ families will have better lives because of these contracts,” said Jack Cline, a Medical-Surgical RN at Saint John’s.

Economic gains were critical to reducing RN turnover at the facilities as all three have been plagued by the loss of experienced RNs who have left the Providence hospitals to work in other Los Angeles area hospitals with CNA contracts.

At Saint John’s Santa Monica, for example, in their second ever contract, all RNs will receive pay increases of at least 22 percent over the four years of the agreement, with some earning as much as a 30 percent pay increase based on pay equity adjustments. Nurses say this will have a huge impact on the turnover at the facility where many have left to work at nearby hospitals.

“Our Emergency Department had turnover of more than 67 percent since 2012.  This improved contract will enable us to recruit and keep the good Nurses we need to provide safer care for Santa Monica,” said Saint John’s Emergency Department RN Julia Havelin. 

For their first ever contract, all Torrance RNs will earn increases of at least 12 percent over four years, with larger amounts based on years of service, plus a signing bonus.

Pay increases for San Pedro RNs range up to 9.5 percent over the life of their 2-1/2 year agreement.

Pay equity with other area hospitals, which will help keep experienced RNs at the bedside, also is a patient care protection, along with other important gains for patients throughout the agreements.

Patient care improvements include limits on assignment of RNs to work in units outside their specialty expertise, limits on mandatory overtime to keep nurses fresh and reduce the threat of accidents and medical errors, and RN professional practice committees of direct care RNs elected by their peers to meet with management to address patient safety concerns and assure a stronger patient advocacy voice for RNs.

Finally, the nurses were able to rebuff efforts by Providence to gain the ability to unilaterally reduce nurses’ health coverage, while also establishing other workplace rights on scheduling and layoff protections.

“I am pleased we were able to address and resolve our patient and nurse safety concerns in our new agreement,” said San Pedro RN Julie Cullen. 

“We truly see the value of being united with our colleagues from the other CNA-represented facilities in the Providence chain, said Heather Garrant, Intensive Care unit RN at Torrance. “With this first contract campaign, it has been an amazing experience to see the power of unity amongst nurses when they speak and stand up collectively for their patients and their community.”  

 “Nurses want respect,” added Ludy Chang, Surgical RN at Torrance. “We won our first CNA contract so we can have improvements in safe staffing and the delivery of safe patient care. We are here for our patients and our community. This first union contract will be our avenue to continue to advocate for our patients and ourselves.”