Nasty Fight Over Nurses Union Goes to a Vote

The radio advertisement told of the close-knit bond between Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and its nurses.

“My mom knows how to care for people,” a youngster said on the spot, which ran last month. “It’s what makes her a great nurse and great mother. It’s like she has two families -- one at home and one at Cedars-Sinai.”

But many say the family of 1,511 registered nurses has become dysfunctional of late, as rancor has grown over a vote on whether to join the California Nurses Assn., the state’s largest nurses union. The three-day vote is set to begin today and be tallied late Friday.

Because Cedars-Sinai is the largest private hospital in the West, a union victory there would be a major coup for the CNA, which already represents 45,000 nurses in the state and has recently won important victories at other hospitals. If Cedars-Sinai stops the union, it could boost other hospitals’ anti-union efforts, experts say.

“It’s significant, because Cedars is such an icon,” said Edward O’Neil, director of the Center for the Health Professions at UC San Francisco. “Nationwide, it’s seen as one of the top dozen medical centers.”

The campaign has been a nasty battle of wills between Cedars-Sinai and the CNA, both celebrating their 100th anniversary this year.

Each side accuses the other of underhanded tactics and misrepresentations. Pro-union nurses say managers and anti-union colleagues have told them to expect retaliation if the vote fails. Anti-union nurses say they have received threatening phone calls at home from union supporters.

“It’s so frustrating,” said Scott Barnes, an emergency room nurse who opposes the union. “Before, we all got along, and now there’s just so much tension and so much animosity.”

Pro-union nurses say they are organizing for better pay, retirement benefits and working conditions. Despite Cedars-Sinai’s pledge to listen to nurses, “We don’t have a say in what happens there,” said Joao Da Silva, an emergency room nurse. “They take suggestions, but if it costs too much, forget about it.”

Anti-union nurses say that a union would only lead to upheaval and that strikes could jeopardize patient care.

“I am perfectly capable of speaking for myself” without a union, said emergency room nurse Suzanne Geimer. “I think we’re all intelligent people.”

Cedars-Sinai, which began as a hospital for the working class, has in recent years been successful at keeping unions out.

In 1976, the hospital fought an attempt by its medical interns and residents to organize, leading to a nationwide labor board precedent that prohibited the practice because most of the workers were trainees. That decision was overturned in 1999 in a case involving a Boston medical center.

In the 1980s, the Service Employees International Union failed to organize nurses in large part because of Cedars-Sinai’s opposition.

Thomas M. Priselac, the hospital’s president and chief executive, said Cedars-Sinai strives to be responsive to its nurses -- and doesn’t need an outside agitator. “The union model is not a model that we believe works best for our employees,” he said.

Hospital officials say, for example, that they have responded to concerns about medical benefits by absorbing a 25% increase in health-care costs this year. The hospital said it has also raised nurses’ salaries by 5%, adding another 5% increase for nurses with more than 20 years of experience.

Cedars-Sinai is one of two hospitals in California designated as a magnet hospital for nurses by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, an honor bestowed on facilities that give nurses direct input into hospital operations.

Pro-union nurses say they believe that Cedars-Sinai can do more. And they say they are particularly appalled at the way the hospital has responded to the unionization drive. The medical center has required nurses to attend meetings about their benefits and the rules governing unions, which some participants say have turned into anti-union lectures.

During separate meetings, nurses say, they have been shown a videotape that presents an unfavorable portrayal of the CNA’s recent strike at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. As ominous music played in the background, the tape included interviews with patients criticizing the strike.

In a guide developed to accompany the videotape, nurse supervisors are encouraged to ask rank-and-file nurses, “What part of the strike made you angry?” and “What parts embarrassed you as a nurse?”

A flier distributed by Cedars-Sinai officials to staff members titled “Election Facts” asks: “Do you really want to join a union that: Controls your work life? Can fine you? Can have you fired? Requires you to walk away from your patients?”

Jill Furillo, the union’s director of government relations, said: “They’re trying to depict unionization efforts as trying to tear the hospital down. We’re trying to build the hospital back up as a great hospital where nurses feel valued and have an equal voice.”

Several California lawmakers, liberal groups and even well-known actors have criticized Cedars-Sinai’s campaign. An ad in Daily Variety last week signed by Martin Sheen, Elliot Gould and Ed Asner, among others, calls on the hospital to “hold a fair and democratic election for your registered nurses.”

“The money Cedars-Sinai spends intimidating and misleading its nurses would be better spent on patient care services,” the ad states.

The hospital’s senior vice president for human resources, Jeanne Flores, said she stands by the campaign. “I think it’s a factual representation of what often happens when the CNA begins to represent nurses in an organization,” she said.

Flores said she believes critics are “misinformed.”

Anti-union nurses accuse union organizers of dressing up in hospital scrubs and meeting with nurses during work hours, only to be removed from the property by security.

They also say the union printed the photos of several anti-union nurses in a brochure that features more than 100 union supporters.

Priselac said he knows the election has been divisive, but he emphasized that patient care has not suffered.

“Regardless of the outcome of the election,” he said, “our focus is going to be that things do return to normal, so the medical center environment can return to the institution it’s always been.”