SF public sector nurses reach tentative agreement, avoids strike

Public sector nurses across San Francisco reached a tentative agreement today with the city’s Department of Public Health, avoiding the possibility of a summer strike. This came just days after members of the union representing nurses, SEIU 1021, voted 99.5% to authorize a strike if their demands were not met.

Nurses have been protesting staffing shortages and safety concerns for months, and have demanded that the city provide pay guarantees and assurances that it will prioritize hiring full-time workers rather than filling the gaps with traveling nurses. The nurses’ contract was supposed to expire at the end of June.

Jennifer Esteen, president of SEIU 1021 Nurses Chapter in San Francisco, said the staffing shortage has created both a poor work environment for nurses and unsafe conditions for patients.

“Some patients who come to our clinics wait weeks to see a doctor,” Esteen said. She said some nurses are required to work up to 16 hours of overtime to address staffing shortages. “Every patient who comes through our doors is at risk.”

Esteen stated that long working hours create an unsafe environment; Nurses don’t even have time for a bathroom break, she said. “It’s pretty bad. We don’t have enough nurses to keep everyone safe.”

Esteen said contract negotiations, which began in February, gained momentum after the strike vote. The nurses’ union previously said the city would not come to the table to enter into talks, and rejected the union’s actions out of hand.

The mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The tentative agreement will provide 47 new full-time nursing positions at San Francisco General, Laguna Honda and local hospitals, greater opportunities to transition to full-time for part-time nurses, and a 17.5% raise for each nurse working for the city. apply for the next three years. Esteen said the union will also receive raw data from the city that will allow it to analyze how many hours nurses work to better meet staffing needs in the future.