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Editorial: Still time to avert strike
Find compromise to end dispute
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More from OpinionWhat has been hinted at for months became reality Wednesday when registered nurses at two Ventura County hospitals announced a five-day strike.
The Star, like others in the community, hopes the nurses' strike, planned from Oct. 19 to 24 at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard and Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo, can be averted.
Strikes are never pleasant. As was shown during a nurses' strike eight years ago at the same two hospitals, patients are disrupted, nearby hospitals are impacted and the tension and rhetoric that accompany a strike can leave lasting scars.
Catholic Healthcare West, which owns and operates both hospitals, and some 760 nurses represented by Service Employees International Union Local 121RN, have been in contract discussions since February. (The strike also involves 650 nurses at Northridge Medical Center.)
Both sides, of course, are playing the blame game. The union says talks have stalled over staffing levels and patient-care issues, while hospital officials say the sticking points are salaries and benefit demands.
Somewhere in between there's a solution that needs to be found if the healthcare needs of the Oxnard and Camarillo communities are to be met by the two hospitals.
Here's some advice for negotiators: Nurses deserve satisfactory attention to staffing concerns that have driven them to strike. Likewise, hospital management deserves satisfactory response to its fiscal concerns.
With compromise, most strikes can be avoided. In the end, neither side really wins in a strike. And, despite claims to the contrary, a strike will assuredly leave a bitter aftertaste for nurses and hospital officials.
What's important now is that hospital administrators and SEIU officials do all they can to prove they want something better than a strike. So, get to the bargaining table quickly and stay there until a contract that's acceptable to both sides is reached.
Posted by KLE on October 11, 2008 at 11:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We all hope that we (the RN's) don't have to go on strike!!! It has seemed like they want us to go on strike and have not cared about getting a contract since the last day we bargained half of their team was not even there!!! For CHW too say it is about $$$ is a miss statement since we haven't talked about it in a long time. The talks have broken off due to their unsafe floating practices, they float untrained nurses to the ICU & NICU. This is not safe and against the law, but they still insist on doing it. The union and the nurses will not sanction the hospital breaking the law!!! IT IS ABOUT PEOPLE'S LIVES!!!
Posted by horsespinner on October 11, 2008 at 7:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
please strike. The economy is on the brink and most people cannot afford to strike. So please go ahead, get more, but remember most of us cannot afford your services, I hope Obama will take it all back and make medical cost effective again.
Posted by adamantly on October 12, 2008 at 1:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Is Horsespinner really as naive as the reply indicates.
He says to strike for more pay is okay but most can't afford the services. So is Horsespinner saying that poor service that puts your life at risk is okay as long as it is cheap.
Reality is, that if you can't afford medical care you can join the millions of illegal immigrants that get the service free from local taxpayers. If there is blame for the high costs of medical treatment blame the illegal immigrant who is draining the healthcare system with their continuously expanding families that are supported by hard working taxpayers.
The important issue here is quality healthcare. It is my experience that while hospitals primary concern is profit, usually at the expense of patient care, nurses are concerned about the quality and safety of patients.
Horsespinner, if the economy is on the brink, and California is a prime example, it is because of freeloaders who take from the system and do not contribute.
God help us if Obama wins because he will try to give all the money, a hard working taxpayer earns, to deadbeats and this will surely destroy the financial stability of the state and the federal government.
Paying for the illegal immigrants medical care, the food, clothing and medical care for their children they continue to have (even though they can't support the ones they already have) and paying for their extended families is bankrupting this state and the federal government. Hell, they even want us to let them in the strawberry festival for free.
Charitable contributions are down. This is because when times are tough people get tired of giving money to freeloaders and deadbeats.
Get a job, get an education and get a better job. Get even more education. If you cannot get ahead in the USA it is a personal issue, not the fault of the state or the country.
Obama and his beliefs will destroy the USA because as Winston Churchill said "you can't make the poor rich by making the rich poor".
In addition, Obama needs to stop the "I am from a poor background thing". He led a priveledged life and he wants to take everything I have EARNED and give it to deadbeats, freeloaders and illegal immigrants.
If he succeeds then the poor will suffer because when the hard working tax payer cannot pay any more, there will be no money for the deadbeats to steal.
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