Nurses notify Barton Hospital of their intent to strike September 20

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The California Nurses Association (CNA) has served Barton Health with a ten-day notice of their registered nurses (RNs) intent to strike on Friday, September 20, 2019.

In November 2017 the nurses at the South Lake Tahoe hospital voted to unionize. At the time the RNs cited a desire to work for enhanced patient care staffing and standards for nurses as key reasons for affiliating with CNA.

They then started going to the bargaining table with Barton executives in March 2018. After reaching 26 tentative agreements (TAs) between then and May 2019, talks stalled according to the nurses and they went on strike May 25.

Since that strike, the two sides have met eight more times and have reached three more TAs, according to Barton Health spokesperson Mindi Befu, Director of Public Relations. The active negotiations had two additional sessions scheduled for September 24 and 25. Those have been canceled due to the strike notice.

Barton will continue to be open during the strike. Even though the nurses said they were going on a one-day strike, replacement nurses need to be hired and their minimum contract is for five days. If they do strike they will not be allowed back to work until September 25 due to this contract.

"We’ve hired qualified replacement nurses who are specially trained for this type of work and will work alongside Barton staff and physicians," said Befu.

"On August 27, Barton presented a fair and thoughtful counter-proposal to the union’s wage proposal, which would result in an average 10 percent wage increase for bargaining unit nurses over three years. We were anticipating continued discussions at the negotiating sessions scheduled at the end of the month," said Befu. There are 178 nurses at Barton Memorial Hospital and Lake Tahoe Surgery Center in the CNA bargaining unit and a total of 227 nurses on staff. The average wage for a full-time nurse at Barton is $48 per hour or $99,000 per year, according to figures supplied by Barton.

In April 2019, Barton Health and CNA both filed Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against each other contending each party was refusing to engage in good-faith collective bargaining.

CNA has not yet replied to a request for comment on their new strike.