Good Samaritan Hospital Nurses Strike

Striking nurses picketed Good Samaritan Hospital on Wednesday to protest stalled contract negotiations with the independent Los Angeles hospital.

The 24-hour strike was scheduled to last until 7 a.m. today, California Nurses Assn. chief negotiator Michael Griffing said. The 408-bed hospital hired workers from an outside nursing service to fill in for those on strike.

Nurses voted in December 1998 to unionize, but the union and hospital have been unable to agree on a contract for the 530 nurses in 14 months of discussion. The hospital has sought to reduce paid vacation and to eliminate extra pay for weekend work, Griffing said.

Good Samaritan spokesmen said that most hospitals do not offer a weekend pay differential and that the union has agreed to similar vacation schedule changes at other hospitals.

Strapped for cash by shrinking insurance reimbursement rates, the nonprofit hospital needs to cut costs to stay afloat, Chief Executive Andrew Leeka said.

Also in contention was the hospital’s decision to close its neonatal intensive-care unit. After the union announced the strike, hospital administrators ordered the unit closed Friday.

“It’s in direct retaliation to the nurses for this one-day strike,” CNA spokesman Charles Idelson said.

The hospital denied the accusation. Leeka said the unit was closed and patients transferred to surrounding hospitals to avoid potential effects of a strike. There were no immediate plans to reopen the neonatal unit.

Hospital administrators said 48 nurses picketed Wednesday, while 60 reported for their regular shift. Griffing disputed that, saying nearly 250 nurses were on the picket line.

The labor dispute drew attention of several area politicians. Hospital administrators said they met with representatives of Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg.

The City Council passed a resolution Friday urging the hospital to keep the neonatal unit open and not to cut the nurses’s benefits.

Nurse Myrna Madriaga, a 15-year Good Samaritan employee who was on strike Wednesday, said picketing her workplace was not easy to do. “Politics is not our thing. Our business is patients’ lives,” Madriaga said.