Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital Narrowly Averts A Nurses Strike

At long last, Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital has reached a tentative agreement with the California Nurses Association, narrowly averting a strike.  CEO Pete Delgado wrote a memo to his staff saying, "The union has withdrawn its strike notice, which is a good thing for our patients and this entire community.  Under the agreement, the hospital will keep charge nurses in place throughout the contract (which would expire in March of 2019).  This was the biggest sticking point for the union, which feared that charge nurses (currently supervisors but represented by the union) could be eliminated and replaced with managers who wouldn't be represented by the union.  Nurses are getting a 7.5% raise over four years as opposed to the 27.6% the union had sought.