Deal Advances Union Organization at Local Hospitals.

After cutting a deal for greater access to try to unionize nurses in the Catholic Healthcare West system, the California Nurses Association is making headway in its organizing efforts at four county hospitals.

At least 30 percent of the nurses at California Hospital Medical Center, Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, San Gabriel Valley Medical Center and St. Mary Medical Center have signed CNA union cards, a key step toward holding a union election. Nurses at five other CHW hospitals elsewhere in the state have followed suit.

The gains follow a landmark agreement last month in which the union agreed not to engage in a paid media campaign attacking the financially ailing CHW system.

In making the deal, the San Francisco-based hospital chain, which operates nine hospitals in Los Angeles County, gave the union an organizing advantage over the Service Employees International Union, which is also attempting to organize the system's nurses.

The SEIU represents 75,000 health care workers statewide, but only about 3,000 in CHW's California hospitals. The CNA, with 35,000 members, is the largest registered nurses association in the state.

Still, the SEIU has not been shut out in its somewhat contentious efforts to organize workers at CHW hospitals. The union last week trumpeted as a "model" agreement the three-year pact it reached for registered nurses at two Ventura County CHW hospitals.

A spokesman for the SEIU said the agreement between CHW and the CNA did not benefit workers, but rather the 47-hospital chain, by assisting a less powerful professional association over a bigger union that represents all levels of hospital workers.

"CHW wants the workers divided," said SEIU spokesman Steve Trossman. "They don't want all the workers in their hospitals in one union. I think they recognize if all the workers are in the SEIU, they will be able to negotiate better contracts."

A CNA spokesman dismissed the rival union's charges.

"We have had contracts for CHW nurses going back half a century. Hardly a day passes when we don't get a call from a CHW nurse asking us to represent them," said CNA spokesman Charles Idelson. "Our contracts are second to none."

The nonprofit Catholic health care system has reported $607 million in operating losses over the past two fiscal years, and is now in the midst of a corporate restructuring intended to save $100 million annually.

An analyst at Standard & Poor's said the hospital chain's fundamental motivation in reaching the agreement was an attempt to enter into a more fruitful relationship with its nurses in the face of a critical nursing shortage and financial troubles.

"It's really important for CHW to resolve some of their union issues. CHW is doing what it can to achieve that," said Lisa Zuckerman, a director with Standard & Poor's.

Lori Alderete, a CHW spokeswoman, declined to comment on any disagreement between the two unions. But she did praise the CNA pact, saying it represents a step forward in assisting the chain out of its woes.

"We want to move forward and position CHW for a future where we are successful financially," she said. "To do that, we need to look at innovative ways of delivering health care, and that includes our relationships with our employees."