Nurses State Their Case to Senate Panel

In the latest twist of a long-running labor dispute between hundreds of nurses and the nation’s second-biggest hospital chain, a state Senate panel held a hearing Friday in Monterey Park to investigate allegations of unfair labor practices at Garfield Medical Center.

The hearing, called by the Senate Industrial Relations Committee, is the latest act in a drama that has unfolded over more than a year and included a brief strike in December.

The committee came to town at the urging of state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), a member of the panel.

To open the hearing, officials noted that representatives of Garfield and Tenet Healthcare Corp.--which owns 44 hospitals in the state, 19 of them in the Southland--declined to appear.

“This is the California State Senate,” said Romero. “I want to state my disappointment that [the hospital administrator] is not here.”

Garfield’s chief executive, Phil Cohen, sent a letter stating that he had to attend a previously scheduled employee retreat. The letter also explained some of the hospital’s positions.

Also absent was Stephanie Sloggett-O’Dell, director of Tenet Health Systems, who was scheduled to speak.

The Monterey Park labor dispute is the second problem facing Tenet in Southern California.

Earlier this week, seven lawsuits were filed in various courts in the region alleging that Tenet ran a two-tier billing system that overcharged poor Latinos as part of a scheme to take advantage of a federally funded charity care program.

The Garfield conflict traces back to late 2000.

Some of Garfield’s 450 nurses, trying to address what they perceived as poor staffing, patient care and working conditions, decided to unionize.

Immediately, the hospital and Service Employees International Union disagreed on whether a segment of the employees were “charge nurses”--supervisors--and therefore not allowed by law to vote.

The National Labor Relations Board ruled that the nurses in question could vote.

In January 2001, a secret ballot vote was held, and the majority of the nurses opted to be represented by the union. In August, the NLRB certified the election.

The board also handed down five unfair labor practice indictments against Garfield--including an accusation that it asked employees to spy on one another.

Those allegations will be addressed in April during a hearing before the regional branch of the NLRB.

Since the election, Garfield administrators have refused to bargain, said Jim Moreau, a union representative.

Attempts by the nurses, union leaders and politicians to get the hospital to talk have included a daylong strike and two marches to Cohen’s office.

Friday’s hearing was attended by about 150 Monterey Park residents, local officials and nurses.

“Whatever they would give to me, I would take,” said Daisy Dai Chun Lee, a nurse of 25 years. “Sometimes I would take up to 15 patients by myself. When I would get home, my feet would be hurting. I want to cry.”

Like many of the patients the hospital serves, some testifying said that many of the nurses are immigrant women from Asia and Latin America who are used to being submissive.

The purpose of the hearing, said Romero and state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar)--the committee chairman--was to see whether state law can be changed to, among other things, force employers to bargain after an election.