Hospital Ends 2-Day Nurse Lockout

Administrators at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center ended a two-day lockout Friday, allowing more than 200 unionized nurses to return to work.

The nurses had staged a one-day strike Tuesday. The hospital responded by hiring a replacement firm to provide temporary nurses, locking out the union workers.

The union has filed an unfair labor charge with the National Labor Relations Board on the hospital lockout. And union representatives said they may call for a strike at the hospital if its administration does not meet their demand for an 8% across-the-board salary increase.

The hospital’s owner, Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., had offered a 6% raise for longtime employees and a 4% raise for newer nurses. Officials with the American Federation of Nurses, Local 535, said that’s not enough because most nurses at the hospital took a salary cut in 1992 and did not get raises for the next five years.

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The union has also demanded that the hospital improve safety by supplying nurses with safety shields to prevent accidental needle pricks, and increasing staffing levels so nurses are not overworked.

Hospital administrators say they are examining new safety procedures. But they said their position on raises is firm.

“We’ve made our final offer,” said Kara Welter, a hospital spokeswoman.

No new contract negotiations have been scheduled, and leaders of the nurses’ union said they may call for strikes at other Tenet-owned hospitals in Los Angeles: Midway Hospital Medical Center and Queen of Angels Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.

“This could be a longer strike--we don’t know, we’re still developing our strategy,” said union leader Bob McCloskey.

The union has scheduled a Tuesday night meeting to discuss the proposed multi-hospital strike. On Wednesday it will hold a candlelight vigil at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center to promote the use of syringe safety shields.