Union nurses embroiled in contract negotiations with Sharp HealthCare have thrown down the gauntlet: they’re planning to stage a three-day strike starting Nov. 28.
Members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals are upset over what they call low wages and management’s refusal to require all nurses to join the union.
Emergency room registered nurse Jackie Young, who's worked for Sharp for 17 years, said contract negotiations didn't go the way she had hoped.
“I mean, I just thought we would negotiate and they would just give us the raises that we deserve," she said. "But they didn’t do it. I truthfully don’t understand, and it is disheartening.”
Sharp officials said they’ve made a generous offer, and believe the union is being unrealistic in its salary demands.
Dan Gross, Sharp's executive vice president, said even so, management is willing to do what it can.
“We are exceedingly open to conversation around many of the elements that are within the contract, and so we are very, very interested in continuing to have conversations to see how we can bring this to a close," Gross said.
No further talks are scheduled at this time.
About half of Sharp's 4,800 nurses are members of the union. There's no word on whether non-union nurses will honor the picket lines in the event of a strike.
