Tenet Nurses Announce Creation of Statewide Council Under California Nurses Association
Registered nurses from 22 hospitals statewide owned by Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare yesterday announced the creation of a statewide council under the auspices of the California Nurses Association as a challenge to Tenet's agreement allowing workers to join the Service Employees International Union, Reuters reports (Reuters, 6/9). Tenet on May 2 announced a three-year agreement with nurses represented by the SEIU and the American Federation of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees to increase wages by 8% in the first year and 7% in each of the next two or three years. However, the nurses represented by the two unions cannot strike over the three-year period of the agreement (California Healthline, 5/5). CNA said Tenet nurses who join SEIU would be "locked into a long-term agreement decided in closed door meetings with top management of Tenet and SEIU" (Reuters, 6/9).
In a separate development, registered nurses at four additional Tenet hospitals on Monday filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold federally supervised elections about joining the CNA (Knight Ridder/Orange County Register, 6/10). The move comes two weeks after the CNA was expected to file a petition with the NLRB seeking to unionize registered nurses at five additional hospitals owned by Tenet. The CNA was seeking to represent the 2,300 registered nurses at Doctors Medical Center of Modesto, Alvarado Hospital Medical Center, Midway Hospital Medical Center, Western Medical Center-Santa Ana and Twin Cities Community Hospital (California Healthline, 5/29). Nurses at Century City Hospital in Los Angeles, Chapman Medical Center in Orange, Community Hospital of Los Gatos and Western Medical Center-Anaheim on Monday filed to unionize (Associated Press, 6/9).
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