Some 2,200 registered nurses who work for San Francisco hospitals and community clinics will by all indications vote to authorize a strike next week, according to their union. This would give them leverage in contract negotiations with the city that nurses say have hit a wall.
The nurses, who are employed directly by the Department of Public Health in hospitals like Zuckerberg San Francisco General and Laguna Honda, have been in contract negotiations since February, primarily over what they call a short-staffing crisis that has left nurses burned out and damaged patient care.
“We have been understaffed for a long time,” said Heather Bollinger, a 16-year registered nurse at San Francisco General and head of the hospital’s SEIU 1021 chapter. Bollinger said the lack of adequate staffing has led to “massive turnover,” and that the city has responded by hiring temporary traveling nurses, a short-term solution that Bollinger said harms patients.
“That’s not sustainable. No one wants a third of their colleagues to turn over every 12 weeks, especially in our long-term care facilities,” she said. “We know from the medical literature that continuity of care leads to better patient outcomes. They cannot continue to ignore the evidence.”
The nurses’ contract is up in June, and the union is seeking a slew of change, most of them dealing with staffing. Union representatives say that while private-sector nurses’ unions have made salary gains since the pandemic, San Francisco’s public-sector nurses have not, leading to a retention problem.
Jennie Smith-Camejo, a spokesperson with SEIU 1021, which represents all the public-sector nurses in the city, said the union wants quicker hiring for full-time positions and higher wages, among other things, but the city has rejected the demands. The two sides are now in mediation.
“It’s supposed to be a negotiation. We’re not expecting to get everything, but we’re expecting to have a back and forth, a dialogue,” she said, “and right now, they’re basically not giving us anything — and they’re denying that there’s even a problem.”
The Department of Human Resources did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But representatives from the health department said in a March meeting that temporary nurses make up less than 5 percent of overall nursing work hours.
A San Francisco General Hospital representative said at that meeting that the department prioritizes hiring permanent nurses, but needs flexibility for regular turnover, and uses temporary nurses to fill the gaps.
The department also said, however, that it is seeking another $100 million through 2027 to hire for more short-term positions, leading union representatives to balk at the proposal.
“They’re saying that, officially, there’s a 4 percent vacancy rate, but if there’s only a 4 percent vacancy rate, why do you need so much money for travel nurses?” asked Smith-Camejo, who said that the additional requested funds were equivalent to 291 full-time positions. She said it was normal to have a certain number of temporary hires, but that current levels are too high.
“The city is plugging holes with registry and travel nurses, which cost the city a lot more, and a lot of that money goes to overhead of the staffing companies,” she said. “It’s not money going into the local economy.”
The strike votes would occur throughout next week at several working locations, like hospitals and clinics, said Smith-Camejo. She said the union has collected more than 1,500 strike pledges from its 2,200 voting members, and is confident that most would vote yes next week.
Smith-Camejo spoke from a rally at Laguna Honda Hospital on Thursday afternoon, when some 150 nurses picketed and announced the strike vote. Nurses have been protesting at hospitals for months, criticizing the city’s hiring practice and poor working conditions. A union survey released last month found that 70 percent of respondents said they had been physically assaulted at work.
The nurses’ contract is one of two outstanding before the city in a year filled with labor negotiations; a unit of Municipal Transportation Authority workers are also yet to sign a contract.
Last month, SEIU 1021, which represents the majority of city workers, reached tentative deals establishing a $25 per hour minimum wage for its members, among other things. That headed off the possibility of widespread strikes in a mayoral election year, which could have significantly affected the campaigns of several candidates, particularly Mayor London Breed.
“Nobody wants to go on strike, but they’re ready to do it,” said Smith-Camejo. “Everyone expected a stressful job, but it doesn’t have to be like this.”
Traveling nurses are pretty expensive, but they’re at least as skilled and knowledgeable and hard working (if not more) than the staff. This isn’t a secret. If the complaint is just that they turn over every few months, so what? The replacements will be good too. It sounds like the staff nurses are stinging about the travelers making so much more than they are. But the patients are being taken care of.