Posted on: Monday, January 20, 2003

St. Francis nurses OK contract

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Striking St. Francis nurses last night overwhelmingly approved a contract agreement reached Thursday.

"The turnout was good," Sue Scheider of the Hawai'i Nurses' Association said last night as she looked around the Laborer's International Union Hall on Palama Street, where nurses voted from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. "People are very happy."

The nurses had walked picket lines for seven weeks. Vote totals were not available last night.

St. Francis was the last of three O'ahu hospitals affected by strikes to reach a deal with its nurses. More than 330 St. Francis nurses have been on strike since Dec. 2. Nurses at Queen's and Kuakini medical centers also walked picket lines for most of that time, but recently approved contracts with their hospitals.

With a St. Francis approval, nearly 1,400 striking nurses will be back at their posts.

The three-year St. Francis contract calls for an 18-percent incremental raise, beginning with a 4-percent raise in the first year.

The other "Big Five" hospitals, Queen's, Kuakini, Kaiser and Kapi'olani, provided much larger first-year raises, Scheider said: about 8 percent in the first year, with overall raises a couple of percentage points higher. But nurses were willing to allow St. Francis more leeway because the hospital has been having financial difficulties.

"That is why we wanted a three-year contract," Scheider said. "They are hurting now, and we understand that. But we needed assurance that, in the end, we'd get closer to what the other hospitals are paying."

O'ahu "Big Five" nurses now earn from $20.55 an hour up to as much as $38.86 an hour, which translates to an annual salary, before overtime, ranging from $42,744 to $80,829.

The hospital is also providing the nurses with access to retiree medical care. Scheider said the premiums will be paid by the employees, but the nurses still consider it a "foot-in-the-door" benefit.

The contract offers assurances that the number of nurses on each ward will remain the same as current levels, she said. It also contains language to guard against excessive mandatory overtime.

Nurses who resigned from St. Francis during the strike will also have until Wednesday to report in to management and rescind their resignations, Scheider said. The union and hospital agreed to that measure to assure patients would receive adequate nursing care.