Registered Nurses at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas Begin Effort To Unionize
Registered nurses at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas on Wednesday said that they will petition the National Labor Relations Board for a vote by the end of the year on representation by the California Nurses Association, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The effort to unionize, "if successful, would mark the entry of organized labor" into Scripps Health, one of the largest health systems in the San Diego area, with about 10,200 employees in five hospitals and several clinics, the Union-Tribune reports. Scripps Encinitas nurses said that they began the effort to unionize because of low wages, a lack of retirement health benefits and a lack of a retirement plan at the hospital. Scripps Health officials said in a statement, "We are disappointed that our nurses feel they need union representation, but we respect their right to organize or to refrain form organizing." CNA organizer Ted Cahill said that the union has similar efforts "brewing" at the other four Scripps hospitals in San Diego County, the Union-Tribune reports (Kinsman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11/6).
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