Cedars-Sinai Continues to Fight Union

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the largest private hospital in the West, said Friday that it will once again challenge a vote by its registered nurses to join a labor union.

After losing a regional hearing conducted by the National Labor Relations Board in March, the hospital will appeal the decision to the board’s national headquarters in Washington. A final ruling could take months.

Officials with the California Nurses Assn. expressed frustration at the hospital’s move, calling it a blatant attempt to delay negotiations.

“The delay process is a time-honored method that some employers try to use to in effect continue to stifle and harass their employees,” said Chuck Idelson, a spokesman for the California Nurses Assn. “They are doing everything they can to stall and achieve through legal machinations what they failed to win at the ballot box.”

But Thomas M. Priselac, president and chief executive of Cedars-Sinai, said, “We feel this is the correct next step ... The importance of having a free and fair election is paramount.”

Nurses voted 695 to 627 in December to join the labor union after a rancorous campaign replete with accusations of deception and intimidation by both sides.

The hospital has challenged the results on numerous grounds, including complaints that the union threatened and intimidated nurses.

But the administrative law judge who heard the regional appeal found no merit to the complaints.

Union officials estimated that the Cedars-Sinai administration has already spent millions of dollars fighting the organizing effort by hiring consultants and lawyers.

“What it represents is a siphoning off of dollars from critically needed patient-care services simply to overturn a democratic election,” Idelson said.

Officials at Cedars-Sinai won’t discuss the amount spent on the anti-union campaign. Priselac did, however, acknowledge in a memo to staff last month that the hospital is experiencing financial difficulties.

Among other things, he wrote, the hospital expects to lay off an unspecified number of employees, leave some positions vacant, minimize use of temporary staff and reduce travel and consulting services.

“I can tell you that the costs that we’re talking about for this [anti-unionization effort] are de minimus in the scope of the organization and are not the source of any financial challenges we’re facing whatsoever,” Priselac said.