SPNN Nurses Ratify Contract With Strong Break Protections

December 2011

Registered Nurses at Sharp HealthCare ratified their contract in October after more than two months of
intense negotiation.  Less than a week before nurses were to begin informational picketing at Sharp’s annual all-staff assembly, management agreed to key contract demands including a wage scale that recognizes RN experience and provides for annual wage increases.  In addition, before this contract, Sharp could and often did force Registered Nurses to work for ten hours or more without a meal break.  We won ground breaking language that now requires Sharp to provide breaks to nurses without
compromising patient care.

“Our members are at the heart of patient care at Sharp hospitals,” said Christine McGovern, RN, President of the Sharp Professional Nurses Network (SPNN), a Home Health nurse who’s worked for Sharp for over 30 years. “We’re proud of our work, and proud that we’ve won a contract that reflects our commitment to quality patient care, with wages and benefits that recognize our years of experience.”

The RNs also won significant improvements in educational benefits which will help them as they move toward Bachelors and Masters degrees and will also help to maintain Sharp’s magnet status.