Results Due Soon on Nurses’ Labor Vote

After casting their ballots to unionize more than a year ago, nurses at Los Robles Regional Medical Center expect to finally learn the results of that vote early next week.

The long delay stemmed from an appeal filed with the National Labor Relations Board by the management at Los Robles and based on whether nurses at a managerial level should have been allowed to vote. The labor board rejected the appeal this week, opening the door for the ballots--which have been impounded for 14 months--to be counted.

Union organizer Jim Moreau said the nurses decided to form a union soon after Columbia, a Tennessee-based hospital conglomerate, took over ownership of the Thousand Oaks medical center. They complained that Columbia cut staffing, eliminated a $2-per-hour weekend differential and cut shifts from 12 hours to eight, which reduced overtime pay.

Columbia officials, however, said the changes were already in place when they acquired the hospital as part of a March 1994 merger with Los Robles’ previous owner.

Since the vote last year, Moreau said the staffing situation at Los Robles has “gotten nothing but worse.”

Moreau said the ballots cast on June 8, 1995, will probably be counted Tuesday or Wednesday in the labor board’s regional headquarters in Los Angeles.

Los Robles President and Chief Executive Officer Ron Phelps said Thursday he expects the vote to be close. If the union wins, Columbia will cooperate with organizers, he said.

“If we prevailed then there won’t be any negotiations,” Phelps said. “But if they prevailed, we’ll sit down and bargain with them in good faith.”

If the vote is 50% plus one in favor of unionizing, the 300 nurses at the hospital will be represented by Local 535 of the Service Employees International Union.