Hospital’s Nurses Stage Another Daylong Strike

For the second time in five weeks, 330 unionized nurses and other employees of Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center went on a one-day strike Friday to protest wages and staffing levels, and were joined by 75 strikers and Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl at Midway Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Both hospitals are owned by Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. and both have been negotiating new contracts with the American Federation of Nurses, Service Employees International Union, Locals 535 and 399.

Managers at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center have proposed a 6% wage increase over 12 months for their most experienced nurses, who comprise about 75% of the staff, and a 4% wage increase for their newer nurses. Nurses say that two-tiered wage structure is intended to divide and eventually break the union.

Midway executives have offered their employees an across-the-board 4% wage increase over 12 months, but union organizers say that is not enough because the hospital recently cut overtime pay scales.

The nurses also complain that both hospitals are dangerously short-staffed, a contention shared by many members of a recently formed union at a third Tenet-owned facility, Encino Hospital.

The strikers may face lock-outs today because Tenet contracted for replacements Friday with U.S. Nursing, a nursing agency which requires a 48-hour minimum commitment.

During the Encino-Tarzana strike in September, the hospital locked out most of its regular staff nurses for two days. The union filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, which is pending.

Local 535 organizer Bob McCloskey said the union will file another such grievance if the nurses are locked out again.

Kuehl, a Santa Monica Democrat who is Assembly speaker pro tem, visited the picketing nurses Friday and pledged her support.

“You stay out here until you get what you need,” Kuehl told the cheering nurses outside the Encino-Tarzana hospital. “And the government is going to be there with you, I promise.”

Kuehl also said that Dale Surowitz, the hospital’s chief executive officer, tried to contact her because “he was concerned that I would show up and support this kind of thing.”

Kuehl said she plans to talk to Tenet executives, but confessed she “can’t imagine that there’s another side to this.”

Surowitz criticized Kuehl for not getting Tenet’s position before speaking to the union members.

Hospital managers maintain, as they did during the last strike, that the labor action has not caused significant disruptions. Surowitz said Friday the 90 replacement nurses and 33 regular nurses who crossed picket lines were having no trouble running the 260-bed hospital.

“We’ve had three open heart procedures today--our schedule is just as busy as a normal day,” Surowitz said. “I would prefer having my regular nurses back, but our confidence level is very high.”

The nurses maintain that the replacement workers are inferior and accuse the hospital of putting patients at risk by hiring temporary nurses.

Both sides say they are eager to get back to the negotiating table, but neither the hospital administrators nor the nurses want to be the first to blink.

In fact, McCloskey said the union is prepared to walk out again if the hospital does not grant its demands.

“We’re really building for a long-term strike,” said McCloskey. “Unfortunately, that might be what it takes to bring this contract together.”