Nurses strike for higher wages

When nurse Anita Lucero responds to an emergency sometimes the patient is violent, but her job is to gain control. First, she must calm the patient with words and gestures. She usually can’t expect much help from the patient as they often are in no condition to communicate with her.

When a patient is so violent they’re dangerous Lucero doesn’t even have handcuffs or any other defense. Then she has to determine what caused the emergency and what needs to be done next — and this happens before any restraints or sedation is brought into the equation. Lucero feels that this job, among others, is worth more than what she is getting.

Nurses and related health care employees like Lucero picketed Monday to garner higher wages for those working in California Developmental Centers. Nurses at five centers across the state, including the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa, protested for wage increases.

“We get pinched, we get punched, and we don’t get any support,” said registered nurse Cecilia Gutirrez, one of the picketers outside the Fairview Center at Fair Drive and Harbor Boulevard.

In early 2006, due to a number of lawsuits against healthcare services in prisons, U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson ordered an assessment of healthcare in prisons. After visiting more than half of the 33 adult prisons in California, one of the determinations was that healthcare workers did not make enough money, leading many trained experts to quit. This contributed to a decline in healthcare for inmates. Healthcare workers in prisons received pay increases ranging from 5% to 64%.

Now healthcare workers, many of them nurses, at state institutions for the mentally ill want similar pay raises. They say they are making on average 48% less than healthcare workers in prisons.

“I recognize that prisons are more dangerous,” said Michelle Taylor, a registered nurse at Fairview. “But they have bars and guards, and we have whistles.”

The Service Employees International Union, which represents the healthcare workers, and the state’s Department of Developmental Services are in negotiations. Union leaders want pay increases that would bring them to an average of 3.4% below that of the prison employees’ wages. State negotiators countered with pay increases that would bring them to an average of 18% below. State negotiators were unable to be reached for comment.

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.