Sparks fly in organizing effort at Tenet hospital. (Health Care).THE stalemated stale·mate n. 1. A situation in which further action is blocked; a deadlock. 2. A drawing position in chess in which the king, although not in check, can move only into check and no other piece can move. tr.v. labor dispute at Garfield Medical Center is heating up. The Service Employees International Union and 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. Corp. have been fighting for two years over the union's efforts to organize and negotiate a contract for the hospital's 450 registered nurses. The nurses voted 201 to 154 a year ago to form a union, but the two sides have yet to reach a contract. In fact, they have yet to sit down and talk. Hospital administrators object to the inclusion of so-called "charge," or supervisory nurses in the bargaining unit and challenged the union's certification. 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 rejected that challenge in August, but hospital officials still won't come to bargaining table. "They won't even say they won't negotiate," said Jim Moreau, an organizer for the union, which has negotiated RN contracts at other local Tenet hospitals. The hospital says it disagrees with the NLRB decision. But under the complexities of federal labor law labor law, legislation dealing with human beings in their capacity as workers or wage earners. The Industrial Revolution, by introducing the machine and factory production, greatly expanded the class of workers dependent on wages as their source of income. , the case cannot be heard by a U.S. Appeals Court unless the union formally alleges an unfair labor practice Conduct prohibited by federal law regulating relations between employers, employees, and labor organizations. Before 1935 U.S. labor unions received little protection from the law. for failing to negotiate. "The courts are the place to settle this dispute," said Eric Jian, the hospital's director of marketing. Moreau says the union won't make such a formal allegation The assertion, claim, declaration, or statement of a party to an action, setting out what he or she expects to prove. If the allegations in a plaintiff's complaint are insufficient to establish that the person's legal rights have been violated, the defendant can make a , because that would play directly into Tenet's strategy, which he believes is to tie the matter up in the courts and wear the nurses down. What's ahead? The union has the support of state Sen. Gloria Romero Gloria J. Romero is currently the Democratic majority leader of the California State Senate and the first woman to ever hold this leadership position. Romero grew up in Barstow, and earned her associate's degree from Barstow Community College. She went on to a B.A. , D-Los Angeles, who said she would seek hearings to see what could be done to bring Tenet to the table (even though federal law supercedes state law in the case). And after complaints by the union, the NLRB has alleged other unfair labor practice charges against Tenet that are to be heard at an April 1 hearing. Those include Tenet allegedly firing an employee for union activity. |
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