Editorial: Back to the bargaining table

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2006 | 7:11 a.m.

The value of public officials interceding in labor disputes was demonstrated Tuesday when an agreement was reached to end picketing by nurses at Desert Springs Hospital and Valley Hospital Medical Center.

Republican Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons and Democrats Barbara Buckley, incoming Assembly speaker; Oscar Goodman, mayor of Las Vegas; and Rory Reid, chairman of the Clark County Commission, met with hospital officials at the county building for more than four hours.

The foursome also spoke with union officials via telephone during those hours. The time was well spent. The union agreed that the hospitals' staff nurses and technicians will cease picketing and return to work Saturday morning. In exchange, the hospitals' management, Valley Health System, agreed to continue talks, first with a federal mediator, and if that yields nothing after 30 days, then for an equal amount of time with someone appointed locally by the elected officials.

Picketing began Monday, when Valley Health System over the weekend rejected a similar offer from the same elected officials. Our view at the time was that management should have agreed to the officials' proposal that talks resume during a 30-day "cooling off" period.

While there is no guarantee that an agreement will be reached on issues that include staffing levels and retirement benefits, certainly it is better to resume talks in hopes of an agreement rather than risk a major disruption in health care.