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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Labor Strife Embroils Local Health Care Industry

For health care organizations and labor unions, the past several weeks have been contentious, with strikes and lawsuits adding fuel to the fire. In mid-April, tensions between the California Nurses Association (CNA) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) reached a fever pitch when the former filed a restraining order against the latter, accusing the union of harassment. The restraining order was ultimately thrown out, but now CNA faces a Strategic Lawsuit to Prevent Public Participation (SLAPP) filed by SEIU to pay for the attorney’s fees and damages stemming from the restraining order. “The temporary restraining order was nothing more than a publicity stunt,” SEIU Spokeswoman Lynda Tran said. “It really speaks volumes that the Alameda County (Superior) Court threw it out.” Tran said that CNA’s anti-union campaigns have interfered with workers’ attempts to unionize. “I think that’s a fundamental problem for working people to have.” Moreover, SEIU believes that CNA’s tactics constitute a violation of First Amendment rights. Accordingly, the group hit CNA with an anti-SLAPP suit, which aims to prevent organizations from stifling the free speech of critics. “California’s anti-SLAPP legislation is designed to ensure organizations like the CNA cannot stand in the way of the First Amendment rights of SEIU workers or anyone else simply because they don’t like being criticized,” said Stephen Berzon, a partner of Altshuler Berzon LLP, the San Francisco-based law firm which is representing SEIU in the case. During the SLAPP hearing, which is scheduled to take place around May 14, it will be determined if CNA must pay SEIU for the cost of attorney’s fees and damages. CNA Spokesman Charles Idelson denies that his organization was involved in any wrongdoing and that the restraining order it filed against SEIU was a mere publicity stunt. “There are very broad protections in the law for labor to participate in freedom of speech,” Idelson said. “What SEIU has done they’ve abused those protections by hiding behind labor law to threaten and harass registered nurses. Is it freedom of speech to be stalking people, to send in teams of people to follow them on the nursing floors, to follow them in their cars, to go to their house and scream at their windows? Is it freedom of speech or harassment?” Idelson admitted that one of the purposes of the restraining order was to alert the public to what he views as SEIU’s series of missteps. “It certainly brought to public awareness the true nature of how they treat their opposition, and, therefore, we applaud the fact that the restraining order was issued and was in place for some time,” he said. “It gave respite to some of our members. They did not have to experience the harassment and stalking that so characterized SEIU’s response to our raising our voices in opposition to their agenda.” During the SLAPP hearing, Idelson said that CNA plans to defend and protect its members against the labor union. Another conflict The conflict between SEIU and CNA isn’t the only health care-related one in which the labor union is involved. Currently, SEIU is mobilizing security workers who work for Pasadena-based company Inter-Con, which contracts with local Kaiser hospitals, including in Woodland Hills and Panorama City. In April and, again, between May 6 and May 8, the security workers at local Kaiser hospitals went on a strike initiated by what they consider to be unfair labor practices. Such strikes last for a set period of time, but can continue being held periodically until the issues at hand are resolved. SEIU Spokeswoman Jennifer Kelly said that the impetus for the strike is that the 1,500 security officers employed by Inter-Con who protect Kaiser facilities and medical buildings don’t have health care for their families, paid bereavement leave and related benefits. The security officers are the only group of workers affiliated with Kaiser who don’t have a union, according to Kelly. “They have been struggling for about two-and-a-half years to form a union,” she explained. “The only response they’ve gotten is that their supervisors have threatened and intimidated them and spied on them. Workers were reprimanded for trying to form a union.” A union is necessary to ensure that the security workers are on par with other Kaiser workers, Kelly asserted. “We need both Inter-Con and Kaiser to make it a priority for these security officers to have a voice and job and paid family health care and get to the same level as other Kaiser workers,” she said. “They make $9 an hour. They don’t have paid sick days. Kaiser janitors make at least a minimum of $11 per hour, and they have fully paid family health insurance and paid sick days.” Inter-Con did not respond to the Business Journal’s calls before press time, but Kaiser Spokeswoman Diana Halper did comment. “This is a dispute which we hope gets solved very quickly,” she said. “SEIU and Inter-Con, in our view, this is something for those two entities to solve. Inter-Con has assured us that they will make sure we have adequate staffing, should SEIU make the decision to picket.” Given that, security will not be an issue for visitors to Kaiser facilities, according to Halper. “They will be safe,” she stressed. Kelly said that striking is a last resort for the security workers. “Nobody ever wants to go on strike, certainly not people who work in a hospital,” she said. Not every recent dispute involving health care organizations and workers remains unresolved. At the beginning of the month, American Medical Response in Lancaster reached a tentative labor agreement with the 295-member International Association of EMTs and Paramedics, bringing the workers’ days-long strike to a halt. “After several months of talks, we have reached an agreement we believe (will be) equitable for all parties, and we expect employees will fully ratify the agreement in the next few weeks,” IAEP National Director Matthew Levy stated. The agreement stipulates that employees’ wages will increase by 20 percent over the next four years, with initial increases being retroactive to November 2007. In addition, the company will make no changes to employees’ health care benefits through the end of this year.

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