Unfair Labor Practices Cited in Nurses’ Lockout

The National Labor Relations Board has issued an unfair labor practices complaint against Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center stemming from a lockout of unionized nurses after a single-day strike in October.

The 330-member union, American Federation of Nurses, Service Employees International Union Local 535, staged one-day strikes Sept. 15 and Oct. 23, protesting wages, staffing levels and health and safety issues.

After each strike, hospital managers locked out the nurses for three days and staffed the facility with replacements.

The union filed unfair labor practice grievances following both strikes. The first complaint resulting from the Sept. 15 strike was dismissed in October and has been appealed to the federal agency’s offices in Washington.

In the second complaint issued March 23, NLRB Acting Regional Director Byron B. Kohn alleges that management discriminated against the union by locking out strikers while allowing nurses who did not take part in the Oct. 23 strike to return to work.

“The [hospital] has been discriminating in regard to the [hiring] or tenure or terms or conditions of employment of its employees, thereby discouraging membership in a labor organization,” Kohn stated.

The hospital managers’ actions, he wrote, also violated a provision of a collective-bargaining agreement that contained a set guidelines for staffing requirements.

The guidelines were not followed because the managers “gave a preference to employees who had not struck,” Kohn said Thursday in a telephone interview.

Union officials said management of the hospital--owned by Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare Corp.--used the lockouts to punish striking nurses.

“The complaint sends a message that an employer must abide by the law and, if they proceed with actions that discriminate against their employees, they will be held accountable,” said Bob McCloskey, an organizer with Local 535.

Speaking on behalf of hospital Chief Executive Dale Surowitz, Jo Lewis, director of human resources for Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, said: “The hospital did nothing wrong and we believe that the hospital will prevail in the case.”

Hospital managers have said previously that the lockouts were necessary because the replacement worker company, U.S. Nursing, required a minimum 48-hour commitment from clients.

A hearing on the complaint is set for May 17 at NLRB headquarters in Los Angeles.

In December, nurses at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center voted to accept a two-tier agreement that gave the most senior employees a 6% wage increase and less experienced ones a 4% increase over a 21-month period.