Sacramento, Calif. - After 20 months of negotiations, registered nurses at the five major University of California (UC) medical centers, 10 student health centers, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have reached a tentative labor agreement.

The California Nurses Association (CNA) said they will vote on the tentative five-year contract next week. The contract covers 14,000 RN's in the UC system.

The CNA said in a press release that their representatives stood strong for their patients and won protections they deserve.

The new contract makes changes in staffing protection, basing it on the severity of a patient's illness instead of meeting UC budgetary goals and improving protections for shift rotations, and meal/rest breaks. It also makes changes in protections against workplace violence and sexual harassment.

A pay increase of 15 percent is included in the contract terms, with more salary for nurses in some locations and job classifications. The goal, according to the CNA, is to be able to retain RNs as career employees in the UC medical system.