Pickets at Fountain Valley Hospital Seek Recognition of Nurses’ Union

Some 70 nurses picketed peacefully outside Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center Tuesday, demanding that hospital managers recognize their union.

“They have refused to bargain with us,” said registered nurse Kathy J. Sackman, president of the United Nurses Assns. of California, which represents 500 nurses and 100 other employees at the hospital.

But hospital administrator George M. Rooth vowed that “the hospital, of course, will not give in” to tactics like picketing.

Rooth contended that the union election, held in 1987, was invalid because “some persons who had not worked for the hospital for months voted.” He said he would like an impartial third party, a federal court, to decide if the election was fair.

Meanwhile, “We’re not going to negotiate with a group that we don’t agree is representative of a majority of our employees,” Rooth said. He added that current management was “easily accessible” as well as “responsive” and he did not believe any hospital employee needed a union.

So far, however, the Los Angeles regional office of the National Labor Relations Board has ruled against the hospital.

Last October, the regional NLRB office decided that the nurses’ union had narrowly won the election to represent hospital workers, 285 votes to 279. And on Feb. 1, the NLRB issued a formal complaint against the hospital, alleging that it had failed to meet and bargain in good faith with the nurses’ union.

NLRB regional attorney James J. McDermott said the complaint also charged that the hospital “unlawfully” changed wages in May, 1988, and moved some employees to a new method of payment on Nov. 1.

Further, the complaint said, on Nov. 1 the hospital changed the date for employees’ annual physicals and evaluations and implemented a two-tier wage system without bargaining.

“Once the union is the bargaining representative, they can’t change terms and conditions of employment without negotiating in good faith with the union before they do it,” McDermott said.

The complaint has been forwarded to the Washington headquarters of the NLRB, which is expected to call for briefs in June and then issue a ruling. If the full NLRB agrees with the complaint, the hospital must begin negotiations with the union or appeal in federal court.

All day Tuesday, nurses in white uniforms picketed at hospital entrances with signs that said “Fountain Valley Hospital Is Unfair.” They spoke briefly to incoming patients and handed out leaflets. The nurses picketed during their lunchtimes or 15-minute breaks and then returned to work.

Even Rooth noted that the “ladies and gentlemen” on the picket line were “behaving like adults.”

Tuesday’s job action constituted “informational picketing,” an effort to elicit public sympathy for their position, but it was not a strike, said registered nurse Chris Majors, president of the nurses’ local union and a Fountain Valley Hospital employee for 6 years.

Majors said union members want to raise salaries, which start at about $14 an hour, but are mainly interested in gaining “a stronger voice” in hospital staffing policies. For instance, nurse-to-patient ratios in sub-intensive care recently were changed from four patients per nurse to as many as six, she said.

Majors predicted the picketing would continue through Thursday, possibly longer.