More than 12,000 nurses at 28 Catholic Healthcare West hospitals struck a last-minute deal with management to improve safety during pandemics at those hospitals, and also receive a 20% wage increase over the four years of the contract.

Catholic Healthcare West is California’s largest nonprofit hospital chain. The nurses were scheduled to go on strike last Friday.

A registered nurse in Sacramento, for instance, will start at more than $42 an hour, up to $56 an hour, during the first year of the contract. Wages will increase five percent each year of the contract.

The Executive Director of the California Nurses Association, Rose Ann DeMoro, said in a statement that it was the safety standards, not the money that was important.

“With this historic agreement, we are charting a new course for limiting the spread of not only swine flu but all other dangerous pandemics that are yet to come,” she said.

The contract includes the creation of a new system-wide emergency task force, that will be comprised of nurses and hospital representatives that will come into being after a pandemic emergency is declared. This task force will

• monitor system-wide preparedness and set uniform standards on full implementation of federal, state and local guidelines;
• ensure the availability of the property safety protective equipment;
• set standards for communication and training policies for all hospital personnel; and
• take other needed steps, such as consideration of off-site emergency triage and treatment.