Invest in Us: Improve Standards at Our Hospitals to Attract and Retain Registered Nurses
We have been clear to management – they need to invest in us, the frontline staff that cares for our community. Our proposals to raise standards to the level of other unionized employers in San Diego continues to be met with resistance. It is unacceptable that Sharp calls us heroes in the media, on their billboards, and in marketing campaigns, then turns around and expects us to have an inferior contract compared to our peers who work at Kaiser Permanente and UC-San Diego Medical Center.
Substantial improvements must be made. Sharp must do better to recruit and retain nurses.
We have completed four days of face-to-face bargaining that have focused on our rights and protections, working conditions, and patient care.
Today we gave management proposals that:
- Make acuity visibly displayed on patient care assignments
- Address Floating
- Increase access to labor-management meeting for bedside nurses
- Improve staffing and break coverage
- Job elimination and replacement protections
- Make the contract accessible on Sharp’s intranet system (Workday)
- Address seniority
- Continue to push back on managements numerous takeaways and demands for concessions
Sharp made counter proposals on Article 4 (Patient Care Advocacy, Supervision, and Professional Responsibility), Article 10 (Probation and Employee Evaluation), Article 22 (Safety and Health), Article 26 (Association Leave of Absence and Access Rights), and a new Article concerning access to the contract.