Kapiolani
nurses reach
tentative accord

Kapiolani Medical Center's
460 RNs will vote Monday
on the proposed agreement

By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

The Hawaii Nurses Association and Kapiolani Medical Center reached a tentative agreement at midnight, leaving one hospital still in negotiations to prevent a nurses strike this holiday season.

Nancy McGuckin, executive director of the Hawaii Nurses Association, said that the talks had been "long and oftentimes difficult" but that this agreement had similar "groundbreaking language" contained in the settlement at The Queen's Medical Center.

Nurses called the contract at Queen's a "landmark agreement" that would set national trends because it allows nurses to participate in staffing decisions and begin collecting nursing data.

McGuckin said the contract was the first in the nation to allow such practices.

The major negotiating issues have concerned nursing workloads and patient care.

The Queen's contract includes no further reductions of registered nurses at the patient's bedside. It gives nurses an 8 percent raise over three years.

Nurses at Queen's and Kaiser Permanente have ratified new contracts. St. Francis Hospital's nurses are set to vote on their settlement today. The 460 registered nurses at Kapiolani will vote on a tentative agreement Monday.

Negotiations on a settlement for the 220 nurses at Kuakini Medical Center continue Monday.

Kuakini nurses are set to strike on Dec. 31 if no agreement is reached.

Nurses at all hospitals but Kaiser Permanente had filed notices that they would strike during the holidays if they failed to approve new contracts.

At Kapiolani's request yesterday, U.S. District Judge David Ezra issued a temporary retraining order that blocked the state or county from prosecuting the hospital for using a recruiting agency to hire replacement workers in case of a strike.

Kapiolani's nurses had been prepared to strike Tuesday if a settlement was not reached before then.

Yesterday's legal action had simply been preparation in the event of a strike, said hospital spokeswoman Pat Oda.

McGuckin said the seeking of replacements had angered Kapiolani nurses and made ongoing contract negotiations "extremely difficult."