West Hills Hospital Workers Narrowly Vote to Unionize

Seeking a greater say in patient care, working conditions and compensation, registered nurses and other employees at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center have voted to join the Service Employees International Union, officials said Thursday.

The vote to organize was 111 to 105 among registered nurses and 160 to 131 among licensed vocational nurses, radiology technologists, respiratory care practitioners, certified nursing assistants, and housekeeping and food-service staff, union officials said.

However, employees in the hospital’s professional voting unit -- pharmacists, social workers, physical therapists, dietitians and certified lab technicians -- voted 30 to 21 against union membership.

All votes were cast during daylong balloting that concluded Wednesday night.

“It is and always has been our belief that we can best work together to meet the needs of employees without the intervention of an outside third party such as a union,” Jim Sherman, the hospital’s president and chief executive, said in a statement.

“As such, we are pleased that we will be able to continue this with the professional employees,” he added. “We do, however, respect the right of employees to form a union if they wish to do so and will bargain with the union in good faith.”

Union membership will give the more than 600 registered nurses and other employees greater clout with hospital management, said Estella Chavez, a 23-year veteran registered nurse who served as a liaison between workers and the union.

“For the first time, the employees, which are the backbone of any hospital, will have a say,” Chavez said. “We’ll be able to work with the administration to set new standards for pay, benefits and staffing.”

Registered nurses at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center unsuccessfully attempted to organize several times in the past, said Chavez, who has worked in the hospital’s intensive care unit for 12 years. “This time, we involved the other departments and the numbers, momentum and excitement started to build.”

West Hills employees join 4,000 other unionized employees at hospitals owned by HCA Inc., the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain.

In the next few weeks, employees will prepare to negotiate their first union contract by electing co-workers to serve on a bargaining team and identifying key areas for improvement, said Jennifer Kelly, a Service Employees International Union spokeswoman.

Unions representing nurses, once a minor force in Southern California, have become increasingly aggressive at Los Angeles County’s largest hospitals.

About 1,500 nurses at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center voted last month to join the California Nurses Assn. Another 1,300 registered nurses at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center joined the union in November 2001.

Of the more than 130,000 active registered nurses in California hospitals, 41% are unionized, up from 34% in 1995, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.