Press Release

RNs Ratify New Pact with Sutter San Francisco Hospitals

RNs Ratify New Pact with Sutter San Francisco Hospitals

Nurses Welcome Protection of St. Luke’s and Gains for RN Rights

Registered nurses at two San Francisco Sutter hospitals, California Pacific Medical Center and St. Luke’s Hospital, have overwhelmingly ratified a new collective bargaining contract for the 800 RNs represented by the California Nurses Association who work at the two facilities.

Nurses attending the meetings said again that they are especially pleased that after years of RN advocacy and community support St. Luke’s will be preserved for the largely low income community it serves and that they have a new contract that strengthens RN employment and economic security. 

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Sutter San Francisco RNs welcome contract ratification Thursday night

The new pact provides for safe patient handling provisions to stem patient falls and injuries to patients and nurses, obligates the employer to provide for meal and rest breaks, and stipulates that new technology not supplant RN professional judgment.

All RNs will receive across the board pay increases of 6 percent over the nearly three years of the agreement, plus additional pay based on years of service in the San Francisco hospitals, at other Sutter facilities, and foreign nursing experience. For the first time, the RNs at both hospitals will be under one contract with equal job security and seniority rights.

The RNs expressed their thanks for the broad community support, led by San Franciscans for Healthcare, Housing, Jobs and Justice, for their fight to keep St. Luke’s open, long threatened with closure by Sutter officials, and for their efforts to win a fair collective bargaining agreement.

"The process has been tumultuous but in the end we had a vision and we were successful in performing the ultimate in patient advocacy - saving St Luke's,” said Jane Sandoval, a St. Luke’s RN and CNA board member. “In addition, with our collective bargaining agreement we have preserved patient care standards, having a voice in that and in our professional integrity."

CNA Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro praised the unity of the nurses over the long contract fight and the public support for nurses as critical to protecting St. Luke’s and winning a new agreement for the nurses.

“San Francisco nurses have worked extremely hard, with the widespread support of a very broad community coalition and the support of a number of community leaders, including members of the Board of Supervisors, to protect this vital community resource. We are proud of the efforts of everyone who has held the line for maintaining St. Luke’s,” DeMoro said.

With the San Francisco agreement now in place, CNA RNs have in the past year completed new pacts with CNA-represented Sutter hospitals at Mills-Peninsula in Burlingame and San Mateo, Sutter Santa Rosa, Sutter Lakeside in Lakeport, and Sutter VNA in Santa Cruz.

Those successful negotiations should be a signal to Sutter officials at facilities where contracts remain unresolved – Alta Bates Summit in Berkeley and Oakland, Eden in Castro Valley and San Leandro, Sutter Delta in Antioch, Sutter Solano in Vallejo, and Sutter Novato – to reach a fair settlement with nurses at those hospitals as well, the RNs said.