California Nurses Takes Legal Action To Force Tenet to Pay Employees Promised Raises; Government Rejects Tenet for 'Fishing Expedition'.Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 2003 The California Nurses Association The California Nurses Association (CNA) is the largest and fastest-growing labor union and professional association of Registered Nurses in California. The National Nurses Organizing Committee is a national labor union for Registered Nurses, and is affiliated with the CNA. is taking legal action today to compel Tenet Healthcare Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC) is an operating company that owns and operates 57 hospitals in the United States [1]. It is based in Dallas, Texas. Its stock ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange is NYSE: THC. to immediately grant pay raises to registered nurses and other employees that Tenet has illegally conditioned on the employees becoming members of the Service Employees Union or the State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME/UNAC). CNA (Certified NetWare Administrator) See Novell certification. will file charges with the National Labor Relations Board National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), independent agency of the U.S. government created under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner Act), and amended by the acts of 1947 (Taft-Hartley Labor Act) and 1959 (Landrum-Griffin Act), which affirmed labor's right requesting the Board to seek an injunction in federal court that would order Tenet to pay the promised raises immediately, without conditions. CNA is also seeking to overturn the back room agreement between Tenet and SEIU/AFSCME that allows Tenet to handpick hand·pick tr.v. hand·picked, hand·pick·ing, hand·picks 1. To gather or pick by hand. 2. To select personally. hand a union for its employees, and any fraudulent private elections held by Tenet/SEIU under the deal. In another legal development, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board has certified CNA to represent RNs at Tenet's San Ramon San Ramon (Spanish for "Saint Raymond") may refer to one of the following places:
n. 1. A type of voting in which each person's vote is kept secret, but the amassed votes of various groups are revealed publicly. 2. See Australian ballot. Noun 1. election last October in which the 250 RNs voted to join CNA. In unusually strong language, the federal Board found Tenet had "asserted no facts and introduced no evidence that directly or indirectly supports" its main objection that would cause the election to be reversed. "Absent such evidence," Tenet is engaged in "a mere `fishing expedition'," in seeking additional documents to support its objection, the Board ruled. In its new charges, CNA's demand that Tenet provide the promised raises is in addition to other CNA charges which include: -- Selecting SEIU SEIU Service Employees International Union SEIU Special Education Intake Unit SEIU Secondary Education Interdisciplinary Unit SEIU Software Engineering Institute Union and AFSCME AFSCME American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees as the exclusive union for its registered nurses and other employees. Federal law prohibits company unionism (a union chosen by the employer). -- Unlawfully promising the pay increases to employees only if they join SEIU/AFSCME. SEIU has distributed flyers stating that employees must join SEIU/AFSCME to receive promised pay increases. -- Providing SEIU/AFSCME preferential access to employees. While seeking to block CNA from meeting with Tenet RNs, Tenet administrators have provided virtually unlimited access inside its hospitals to SEIU/AFSCME. Tenet administrators are holding staged meetings with SEIU/AFSCME in hospital auditoriums, and Tenet has allowed SEIU staff to wear employee badges in some instances. At one hospital, Tenet security was reportedly seen distributing flyers on behalf of SEIU. Tenet is also refusing to allow RNs to vote for CNA representation in so-called "private" elections. "It is disgraceful and unlawful for Tenet to deny its RNs and other staff the raises they are entitled to unless their employees agree to a shotgun wedding with SEIU/AFSCME," said CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro. "Tenet must assure its employees a genuine, democratic choice on whom, if anyone, they want to represent them - and not hold their employees' livelihood hostage to joining a company union," DeMoro said. More information on Tenet, along with reports on SEIU campaigns to set up company unions across the U.S., is available on the CNA website, www.calnurse.org |
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