Sharp HealthCare Nurses Vote to Authorize a Strike

SAN DIEGO COUNTY -- On Nov. 10, registered nurses with Sharp HealthCare voted to authorize a strike to protest what they say are unfair labor practices and below-market wages. Ninety-eight percent of 2,203 nurses who cast ballots voted to authorize the unfair labor practice strike, according to the Sharp Professional Nurses Network union.

“We’ve spent months explaining to management why experienced nurses are a necessary part of patient care at Sharp," said Christina Magnusen, an RN at Sharp Grossmont in La Mesa. "Unfortunately, management refuses to acknowledge how turnover is impacting the working conditions of the nurses who remain. While they claim turnover rates are lower than average, they miss the underlying point that Sharp is bleeding nurses and why it matters."

Sharp, according to the nurses union, is on track to lose nearly 700 nurses this year, and has been trying to fill the gaps with hundreds of thousands of hours of overtime and double time for current nurses and by adding traveling nurses to the schedule.

Sharp, a regional not-for-profit based in San Diego, includes four acute-care hospitals, three specialty hospitals and three affiliated medical groups. According to union calculations, the company is short over 350 nurses, in part because it doesn't pay competitive wages.

Sharp recently said that in its latest, best and final contract offer, all nurses would get at least a 16 percent bump in pay over three years. But union has countered that wages would still not reach the level of nurse salaries at other facilities around San Diego County.

Sharp HealthCare currently employs about 4,800 nurses, about half of whom are union members.

“We are willing to do whatever it takes to protect our patients," said Nieysha White, an RN at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital in San Diego, "up to and including a strike.”

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