Strike Threat Averted as Nurses OK New County Pay Pact

Nurses who work for San Diego County voted Wednesday night to approve a new contract that will give them a 17.3% average raise over the next 14 months, an agreement reached after they worked for more than a year without a contract.

The 216-52 vote came after an intensification, over the last two weeks, of the nurses insistence that their wages be brought up to those of other San Diego nurses, or they would strike.

“Given how far behind the county nurses were, it was tremendous progress to have achieved this much,” said Bob Callahan an organizer for Service Employees International Union. The nurses voted in December to be represented by Local 102 of the union, an AFL-CIO affiliate.

Jubilant nurses said the substantial raise was welcome, but they were particularly pleased with having forced the county to negotiate issues such as health benefits.

“The greatest thing that came out of this was that it forced the county to talk about these other issues,” said Sue O’Brien, a psychiatric nurse at the county’s mental hospital.

O’Brien is among about 110 nurses who work in county psychiatric facilities, such as the adult hospital at 3851 Rosecrans St.

“We were confident that this was a very attractive offer,” Bob Lerner, spokesman for the county, said. “It was motivated by the Board of Supervisors to maintain a continuation of services.”

The health-and-benefits package will cost the county about $3.7 million and must pass final approval by the board before going into effect, which will probably happen later this month, Lerner said.

Although the psychiatric facilities would have been the earliest victims of a strike, other public health programs would also have been affected.

Most of the county’s nurses, about 140, operate county clinics for immunization and sexually transmitted diseases; track people who have been exposed to diseases such as measles and hepatitis so they can be treated and do home visits, said Dr. Donald Ramras, public health officer for the county.

Another 100 are scattered at various sites in the county, including jails and probation camps.

Times staff writer Bernice Hirabayashi contributed to this story.