Sharp HealthCare Nurses and Management Reach Contract Agreement

SAN DIEGO -- Sharp HealthCare registered nurses, who as recently as a week ago were planning to go on strike, have reached a agreement with Sharp management on a new contract. After months of negotiations, the two sides have tentative agreement in place for a new three-year deal.

The Sharp Professional Nurses Network, the union representing almost 5,000 Sharp nurses at the bargaining table, says it plans to hold a series of meetings next week, from Monday, Dec. 5 through Thursday, Dec. 8, where the nurses will hear the details of the agreement and have a chance to discuss and vote on it. The Sharp nurse bargaining team is recommending the members vote yes to ratify the contract.

The votes are scheduled to be counted at noon on Thursday, Dec. 8, and the result announced when the count is complete. The count is expected to take less than an hour. Other than the number of years, no other details of the tentative agreement have been made public thus far.

The deal comes just a few days after the nurses union called off a 72-hour strike that had been scheduled to begin Nov. 28. Nurse recruitment and retention had been the central issue in bargaining. The union has said that non-competitive wages has led in a high turnover rate at Sharp facilities.

“In recent years, we have watched more and more nurses leave Sharp for better-paying hospitals across the county,” nurses union President Christina Magnusen, RN, said. “We have struggled to get management to understand that they need to pay competitive wages to keep our well-trained, experienced nurses at the bedside, and recruit nurses who will want to make a career here at Sharp.”

“As nurses, we are patient advocates. When all nurses are united, we can raise a stronger voice to advocate for our patients,” said registered nurse Denise Duncan, President of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, of which the Sharp Professional Nurses Network is an affiliate.

“The unity of Sharp nurses won this agreement," Duncan said. "Hundreds attended the negotiating sessions for months. Thousands of nurses were prepared to give up a week’s pay to win a contract that will recruit and retain the best nurses, who can give the San Diego community the best possible patient care."

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