Petaluma nurses contract talks stall

Nurses at Petaluma Valley Hospital have launched a public campaign as contract negotiations with St. Joseph Health hit a snag.|

A union representing nurses at Petaluma Valley Hospital has launched a public campaign to express frustration with contract negotiations with hospital operator St. Joseph Health.

The Petaluma Nurse Partnership campaign, including a billboard along Highway 101 in Petaluma, newspaper ads and a website, comes at an impasse in talks for the new union’s first contract with the hospital operator. It also comes as St. Joseph is engaged in forming a new company with Adventist Health to run their Northern California hospitals, and as the new entity works on a long-term lease agreement for Petaluma Valley Hospital.

The nurses union, which formed a year ago to represent 150 Petaluma nurses, has been negotiating with St. Joseph for the past six months, according to union president Jim Goerlich. The sticking points include language that the union feels would not provide adequate staffing levels to take care of patient needs.

“Staffing should be based on patient needs,” Goerlich said. “Our current contract covers that. They want to dumb it down.”

Petaluma nurses are currently covered under an old contract that was negotiated by California Nurses Association, the previous bargaining representative. St. Joseph has met with the union 19 times since April, and hospital officials said they have made progress on a number of issues, including reaching agreement on more than 20 articles.

Todd Salnas, president of St. Joseph Health for Sonoma County, said he is confused by the union’s public campaign while the two sides appear to be making progress.

“We are not clear what the intent of the union’s publicity campaign against us is, and are confused by the union’s recent actions,” he said in a statement. “St. Joseph Health stands by its commitments and believes our offers to date are reasonable in order to achieve an agreement with PSNAP.”

Salnas said the union so far has refused the offer of a third party mediator.

Goerlich said securing adequate staffing levels in the contract is important to maintaining a safe work place and to attracting nurses to work at Petaluma’s only hospital.

“If we can’t get a contract that works for everyone, we’ll be in a downward spiral,” he said. “We can’t attract nurses here. We’ve been losing nurses.”

Lucinda Lofftus, vice president of the nurses union, said that salary and benefits have yet to be discussed. She said the staffing levels first need to be established.

“We’ve had no wage increase in three years,” she said. “We’re not even there yet in negotiations. We’re down to some things that we can’t compromise on.”

Goerlich said union members have talked about a potential strike, but are not ready to take that action at this point. He said the public campaign is designed to get community support for the nurses.

“We’re hoping that shedding light on this will get them to move,” he said. We need the community to back us.”

St. Joseph has operated Petaluma Valley Hospital since 1997 under a 20-year lease that expired last year. It has continued to run the hospital during negotiations with the Petaluma Health Care District, the owner, for a new operating contract. Complicating those talks is the looming merger with Adventist Health. A new long-term lease agreement must eventually be approved by health care district voters.

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.