Nurses Set for 1-Day Strike

Some 1,300 registered nurses at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center are set to strike today in the largest such job action in California in more than four years.

In response, the hospital’s management has vowed to block the nurses from returning to work as planned on Thursday. The standoff underscores the acrimony that has come to define labor relations at some of the largest hospitals in Los Angeles County.

Emboldened by a nationwide shortage that is especially pronounced here, nurses are showing that there is a tough side to this caring profession.

With nursing unions firmly established in Northern California, organizers have set their sites on Los Angeles County, where opportunities are more plentiful.

“It’s really quite simple,” said Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Healthcare Assn. of Southern California, a hospital trade group. “Organized labor is going where the opportunities are. I think we’ve seen steady momentum in this direction over the last five years in Southern California. It just seems like it’s all coming to a head right now.”

The nurses’ labor actions come after more than a decade of dramatic change in the health-care industry, primarily wrought by managed care. Patients have been coming into hospitals sicker, leaving more quickly and straining the thinning ranks of bedside nurses.

Many nurses have left hospitals for less demanding jobs in other clinical or research settings, or left the profession.

Of those who remain, an increasing number are taking a stand--not just for themselves, they say, but for their patients.

“I love being a nurse. It’s not a job -- It’s who I am,” said Margie Keenan, 53, who works at Long Beach Memorial.

“I feel like it’s destroying our profession -- this pushing and pushing and making people work harder.... We have to put our foot down and say this is what it takes to take care of patients the right way.”

Until recently, union activity had been concentrated in smaller hospitals in Southern California -- but now it is spreading to the largest facilities.

About 1,700 registered nurses at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the largest nonprofit hospital on the West Coast, will vote in December on whether to join the California Nurses Assn.

The rival Service Employees International Union recently won the right to represent nurses at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank and Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in Pomona. Both hospitals, among the 10 largest private facilities in Los Angeles County, are refusing to recognize the unions without a fight.

“A lot of nurses that have traditionally ... been timid and shy about speaking up ... have now suffered to the point where they’re willing to do something about it,” said Dan Bachar, 44, a surgical nurse at Cedars.

Although Cedars claims to be the best hospital in the region, Bachar said, the hospital’s salary and benefits package leave something to be desired. “If you want the best, why not pay the best?”

Cedars officials say that their pay ranks in the top tier of local hospitals, and that their nurse staffing levels exceed the minimum standards recently proposed by the state.

“The health care industry and health care providers, in particular, are under tremendous pressure,” said Jeanne Flores, a hospital senior vice president. “It’s understandable in some sense that there is some frustration on the part of staff.... I think they’ve been misled into thinking that a third party can do something that we can’t do on our own.”

Long Beach has been the site of a nasty tug of war between labor and management for three years. In February 2000, nurses voted 591 to 581 against joining the CNA. Nineteen months later, the nurses voted 630 to 523 in favor of the union.

Topping the list of unresolved issues is nurses’ demand for a new pension program, followed by better staffing levels and pay increases for veteran nurses.

A mediator was unable to bridge the differences, prompting the union to call for today’s one-day strike.

“There’s no question that this strike will hurt us,” said Dr. Gainer Pillsbury, medical director at Long Beach Memorial. “But at the same time, we cannot mortgage the future by signing a blank check and agree to a [pension] plan that we can’t even evaluate ahead of time.”

The hospital said it will spend $1 million to $2 million to hire temporary nurses from U.S. Nursing Corp., which specializes in finding replacements for striking workers. Because the hospital agreed to hire the temporary nurses for a minimum of five days, Pillsbury said, officials will not allow the striking nurses to return to work until Monday even if they want to.

The nurses’ union compares the action to the Pacific Maritime Assn.’s recent lockout of port workers in Long Beach and along the West Coast because of a contract impasse.

“What they’re going to see is that the resolve of the nurses is phenomenal here,” said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Assn. “They’ve really just had it with bad decision-making in that hospital.”

In general, said Luisa Blue, president of the SEIU Nurse Alliance in Southern California, nurses are overworked. A growing body of evidence, including a study released today in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., shows that having fewer nurses on staff increases the risk of patient deaths.

“It’s gotten to the point where nurses are feeling that unless improvements are made with staffing, what’s the sense of staying?” Blue said.

Some hospital officials say unions have crossed the bounds of decency to attract members. A Pomona Valley spokeswoman, Kathy Roche, said that the union engaged in threats and intimidation, and even keyed several cars.

Roche also said the hospital has questioned the “unauthorized videotaping” of the voting process in September.

SEIU denies those claims. A pro-union nurse at Pomona Valley, Julia Smeirat, agreed, however, that the fight became very personal because the hospital “pretty much tried to set nurse against nurse.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Labor in the nursing ranks

The 10 largest privately owned hospitals in Los Angeles County and their union status; the list excludes UCLA Medical Center.

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Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Licensed beds: 898

Union status: Nurses have set an election in December on whether to join the California Nurses Assn.

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Long Beach Memorial Medical Center

Licensed beds: 721

Union status: 1,300 nurses plan a one-day strike today with CNA.

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Providence St. Joseph Medical Center

Licensed beds: 604

Union status: Nurses voted 270 to 223 in September to join Service Employees International Union. Hospital is challenging election results.

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St. Mary Medical Center

Licensed beds: 539

Union status: Represented by CNA

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Huntington Memorial Hospital

Licensed beds: 525

Union status: Nonunion

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Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Sunset

Licensed beds: 492

Union status: Represented by SEIU

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Methodist Hospital of Southern California

Licensed beds: 489

Union status: Nonunion

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Little Company of Mary Hospital

Licensed beds: 452

Union status: Nonunion

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Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center

Licensed beds: 436

Union status: Nurses voted 393 to 275 to join SEIU; hospital is challenging union certification.

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Queen of Angels/Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center

Licensed beds: 434

Union status: Nurses, represented by SEIU, held two strikes and a rally arlier this year after contract talks broke down. Contract reached in August.

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Source: California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, California Nurses Assn., Service Employees International Union