Thousands of Sharp Hospital nurses in San Diego are preparing to go on a strike next week after negotiations have stalled, the union announced on Friday.
A three-day strike is scheduled to start on Monday at 7 a.m., according to Sharp Professional Nurses Network.
The union claims that its nurses are overworked and underpaid, and due to the lack of competitive wages, there is a high turnover rate. It also argues that nurses are often sent home due to canceled shifts.
Although negotiations between the union and Sharp Healthcare fell through on Friday, they may continue over the weekend.
Dan Gross, Executive Vice President at Sharp Healthcare told NBC 7 that they are preparing for a possibility that a deal is not reached by Monday.
“We have contracted with a nurse agency that would be providing us with nurse replacements for those nurses who do honor the strike. We also have many of our own nurses who are communicating to us that they plan to be to work on Monday," Gross said.
Gross says negotiations fell through a few days ago when the union asked that all incoming nurses be required to join and pay dues. He added that currently, it is not mandatory for nurses to join the union—with only about 48,00 nurses paying dues.
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But while the union and hospital try to find common ground, families and patients say their main concern is having quality care, regardless of where the negotiations stand.
"You hope that somebody that has compassion with their patients is going to be there. I don't know if people they hire to cover a strike are going to be able to accomplish that," said Broderick Harris, whose mother is hospitalized.
Harris added that he hoped the hospital would give the nurses what they are requesting.
"I hope they give them what they want because they deserve it," he said.
If a deal is not reached over the weekend, the strike wil began Monday morning. Nurses are planning to strike in front of the Sharp Hospitals in La mesa, Kearny Mesa, Chula Vista and Coronado.
