280 Area Nurses Go on Strike

More than 280 union nurses at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center broke off negotiations with the hospital’s owners and went on strike Tuesday morning to fight for higher wages and safer working conditions.

Leaders of the American Federation of Nurses, Service Employees International Union (Local 535) say they will continue to strike today if the company follows through on a threatened lockout.

The nurses are demanding an 8% across-the-board raise to make up for a five-year wage freeze. The hospital owner, Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., has agreed to a 6% wage increase for longtime employees and a 4% raise for newer nurses.

In addition to their wage demands, the nurses accuse Tenet of understaffing the hospital and skimping on safety equipment to the detriment of patient care.

A spokesman for the hospital said the accusations are unfounded and a smoke screen to obscure the wage demands.

“This is an old-fashioned labor action,” Tenet spokesman Brandon Edwards said. “This is about wages. All the rest of these things are being brought to disguise the fact that this strike boils down to money.

“The wages that we offer are at or near the top for the entire region,” said Dale Surowitz, the hospital’s chief executive officer. “The wages we offer are actually more than reasonable.”

Starting salaries for Encino-Tarzana nurses are $18.43 an hour and can reach $29 an hour for critical-care nurses with specialty training, a union spokesman said. In Southern California, nurses’ earnings average about $18 an hour and rise to $28 for specially trained critical-care nurses.

On Tuesday, the nurses--some dressed in white or aqua-blue uniforms--carried protest signs, chanted slogans and cheered as honking cars drove past.

“This hospital is booming,” said Anne Clarke, president of the regional medical center chapter of SEIU Local 535. “This hospital made a net profit of $16.7 million last year. All we’re saying is we deserve part of that.”

The hiring of replacement nurses irked striking workers.

The replacement nurses filled in for the strikers Tuesday and are expected to return to work this morning, Surowitz said, adding that the company was not locking out the nurses, just honoring its contract with the replacement firm, U.S. Nurses.

“The U.S. [Nurses] folks had to secure a minimum 48-hour commitment from us,” Surowitz said. “The issue that we are addressing is to assure quality care for our patients.”

Linda Lyons, a medical-surgery nurse who has worked for the hospital for 10 years, was angry about the cost of the replacement nurses.

“It is insulting that they are willing to pay [U.S. Nurses] and not give us a raise,” Lyons said.

The union nurses say they will strike again today if they are locked out and replacement nurses are used.

Karen Manogian, who has been an Encino-Tarzana nurse for 20 years, acknowledges that she and her colleagues are relatively well-paid, but said their wages are warranted because of their experience. Most nurses at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center have been working there for at least 15 years, according to nurses and hospital officials.

“We are at the higher end of the wage scale because we are providing excellent care [and] because we’ve been here so long,” Manogian said. “The community knows that and management needs to understand that they have to pay for quality care.”

Union members said they were also angry that top Tenet managers had received substantial salary increases and bonuses, while their own wages stayed relatively stagnant.

“Most of us are against striking,” Lyons said. “We just want to care for our patients. But Tenet has got to understand that administrations come and go, but we’re the bedrock of this hospital. They need to acknowledge us.”

Tenet’s chief executive officer, Jeffrey C. Barbakow, will make $1.1 million with a bonus of $1.6 million this year. Last year, he earned $992,000 and a $1.2 million bonus. President Michael H. Focht will make $700,000 this year with a $1 million bonus. Last year, he made $634,200 with a bonus of $753,957.

Management turnover is part of the hospital’s problem, says SEIU Local 535 spokesman Bob McCloskey. For example, in 1980 Hyatt Medical sold Tarzana Medical Center to American Medical International, which merged with National Medical Enterprises to form Tenet in 1992.

Every time there was a change of ownership, the hospital’s workers had to renegotiate their contracts, McCloskey said.

Several nurses from Queen of Angels Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and Midway Hospital Medical Center--both owned by Tenet--attended the protest to show their support. Their union, SEIU Local 399, is currently negotiating with management at both hospitals about wage increases.

“Tenet is gobbling up a lot of hospitals and they’ve got a philosophy that they don’t want to deal with collective bargaining except on their own terms,” said Local 399 spokesman Jorge Rodriguez. “That’s why they’re striking at Tarzana and that’s why we’re preparing a strike at Midway as well.”

Tenet owns and operates 123 hospitals in 19 states, with 116,800 employees and profits last year of more than $400 million.