Nurses Protest Over County’s Pay Offer

In the first of several protests over their pay, as many as 40 nurses staged a demonstration in front of the Ventura County Medical Center on Friday.

Three weeks ago the county and 250 nurses from the California Nurses Assn. reached an impasse over pay. County officials offered a 1% raise, while nurses requested 8%.

“They expect us to roll over and accept a 1% pay raise,” said Cindy Cole, an emergency room nurse at the hospital for 14 years and a member of the union’s contract negotiating team. “Some of us have received no pay raise in seven years. Why we’re staying here, we’re starting to wonder.”

In seven years, most county nurses have received a total pay raise of 2%, Cole said. But some specialty nurses, about 15 or 20, have received no raises in the same period, she said.

Nurses who have worked at the hospital longer than a year earn $18.35 an hour while specialty nurses--those who work in the intensive-care unit or the emergency room--make $21 per hour, she said.

The nurses plan to air their concerns at the supervisors’ meeting Feb. 23.