Judge blocks nurses' strike at 5 UC hospitals

Plans by nearly 11,000 nurses to strike Thursday at five University of California medical centers were put on hold Tuesday when a San Francisco judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing the walkout.

Nurses represented by the California Nurses Association planned to join 12,000 Minnesota nurses in the one-day walkout that, even without the California nurses, would still be the largest registered nursing strike in U.S. history. Nurses from both states who are part of a larger union called National Nurses United say staffing issues - not wages - are at the heart of the disputes.

UC officials sought an order to stop the strike, maintaining that the walkout would pose a threat to public safety. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Peter J. Busch sided with attorneys representing the university, saying that to defer the issue for two weeks would not cause undue harm to either party.

Busch scheduled a hearing for June 18 on whether an injunction should be granted.

Thursday's strike would have been the first work stoppage by UC nurses since they became unionized in 1984. They had threatened to go on strike in 2005, but they were stopped by a court order.

Labor leaders said they scheduled an emergency meeting Tuesday evening to discuss the union's response to the ruling, which they expect to announce today.

Non-UC hospitals

Union officials said Tuesday's order did not apply to nurses at the three non-UC hospitals who planned to participate in the strike. Still, labor leaders said they would be evaluating whether to go ahead with Thursday's walkout at those hospitals.

The strike was to take place at five UC medical centers - San Francisco, Davis, Los Angeles, Irvine and San Diego. The non-UC hospitals are San Pedro Hospital, Citrus Valley Medical Center and Marina del Rey Medical Center, all in Los Angeles County.

The strike at 14 Twin Cities hospitals in Minnesota is still scheduled for Thursday. The California nurses decided to strike after the Minnesota nurses set their strike date. UC's attorneys argued that the timing was strategic.

"The California Nurses Association and its national leadership called for this strike as a tactical ploy in a campaign to increase membership rolls by building up staffing levels," said Dwaine Duckett, UC's vice president for human resources, in a statement issued after the ruling. "This ruling is a victory for our dedicated nurses; most importantly, a victory for our patients."

The nurses have accused UC management of failing to uphold California's nurse-to-patient staffing ratio law while nurses are on break or on meal times. They also accuse the university hospitals of failing to properly adjust those ratios for acutely ill patients.

UC officials say they are complying with the law. Both sides have agreed that wages are not a sticking point.

Technical issues

But in Tuesday's court hearing, the arguments centered on the technical contractual elements around whether the nurses had the right to strike at this point in the negotiations.

The nurses' current contract, which expires Sept. 30 and has a "no strike" provision, gives union leaders the right to reopen negotiations on certain key issues, including staffing, and the authority to suspend the no-strike clause.

The California nurses argued they have the right to strike if an agreement can't be reached on the key issues. But UC's attorneys contended that discussion over staffing concerns, which were reopened last fall, ended in December and that negotiations now pertain to the forthcoming contract, making the strike unlawful.

The judge, who received written and oral arguments and held an hourlong question-and-answer session, did not interpret the legality of the strike as part of his decision.

He sided with a decision made last week by the California Public Employment Relations Board, the quasi-judicial agency charged with administering the collective bargaining agreements for the state's public employees, which contended the strike could jeopardize the public's safety.

The nurses have a right to appeal the decision, but they declined Tuesday to discuss their options.

E-mail Victoria Colliver at vcolliver@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle