10,000 UC nurses ratify new labor contract

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/03/24/state/n113707D45.DTL&type=health

Some 10,000 registered nurses at University of California medical centers throughout the state have ratified a new contract.

The three-year agreement, reached earlier this month, concludes negotiations that began last April.

The deal gives nurses a 6 percent pay increase this year, with increases for future years to be decided in the fall of 2008 and 2009.

Other terms include keeping vacation, sick and holiday pay separate, rather than combining it in a way that nurses say would have forced them to come to work sick and limiting mandatory shift rotations, where nurses are required to work day shifts then rotate to night shifts.