More Tenet RNs File for Election to Join Calif. Nurses Assn.; Orange County Hospital is 13th Tenet Facility to be Represented by or Seeking to Affiliate with CNA.

News Editors/Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 14, 2003

Registered Nurses at Coastal Communities Hospital in Santa Ana, Ca. will petition the federal labor board today for a representation election to join the California Nurses Association, the state's largest organization of RNs.

Coastal Communities, with some 200 RNs, would become the 13th Tenet Healthcare hospital where the RNs are already represented by CNA or have filed for a federally supervised election to join CNA.

A secret ballot election for the Coastal Communities RNs could be held within six weeks. The National Labor Relations Board would conduct the votes.

Coastal Communities joins Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, Daniel Freeman-Marina Hospital in Marina del Rey, Los Alamitos Medical Center, Mission Hospital and Community Hospital of Huntington Park, and Suburban Medical Center in Paramount where the RNs have filed for elections the past two weeks.

CNA already represents Tenet RNs at five other hospitals and is the largest RN organization in the Tenet system. With the 13 hospitals, CNA would represent more than 3,000 Tenet RNs. Overall, CNA represents 50,000 RNs.

"It is increasingly apparent that CNA is the voice of choice for Tenet RNs," said CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro. "Tenet RNs know that CNA has set the standards for California RNs on compensation, retirement security, and patient protections that are second to none in the nation."

The growing number of Tenet RNs who are seeking to join CNA is an emphatic rebuke to a back room agreement in which Tenet has selected the Service Employees Intl. Union (SEIU) and the State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME/UNAC) as its choice to represent RNs and other Tenet employees -- and conditions raises for their employees on joining SEIU/UNAC, DeMoro noted.

CNA's has filed charges with the NLRB asking the labor board to seek a federal injunction to require Tenet to pay its employees those promises raises without compelling them to join SEIU/AFSCME. CNA has also filed NLRB charges to overturn Tenet's agreement with SEIU/AFSCME as a violation of federal law by handpicking SEIU/AFSCME as the exclusive union for its employees and other violations.