Union organizing falls short of early expectations.

Hospital officials puzzle over lack of unionizing efforts

The American Federation of Nurses is trying to organize St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, but the huge surge of union-organizing that hospital officials expected after a U.S. Supreme Court decision last spring making it easier for hospital employee groups to form unions hasn't materialized.

No union has filed a major petition with either National Labor Relations Board regions that cover Southern California, despite making claims of actively organizing nurses groups at more than 20 hospitals last spring.

The Service Employees International Union's nursing organizing unit, the American Federation of Nurses, is at work to organize five different Southern California hospitals, including St. Joseph, said Dave Bullock, regional director of Local 535. Last spring Bullock said the union had targeted 12 to 15 hospitals for organization.

Last spring, an official with the California Nurses Association told the Business Journal it had targeted eight Southern California hospitals for union drives. Last week, Association spokeswoman Maureen Anderson, when asked about union plans, would only say, "We are going to have an announcement in a couple of weeks."

Officials from the United Nurses Association of California, who said they had contacted 4,000 to 5,000 nurses last spring about union organizing, did not return repeated phone calls from the Business Journal.

Unions typically like to keep organizing drives a secret until they file with the NLRB for a union election, for fear of tipping off hospital administrators who will hire anti-labor consultants to fight the drive. But hospital official and top labor attorneys who represent hospitals say that things are a little too quiet.

Last April the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a National Labor Relations Board ruling that would allow eight distinct employee groups at hospitals to form unions. The decision came after 17 years of bitter court battles between the NLRB and the American Hospitals Association.

Under the ruling eight employee groups, including nurses, doctors, technicians, skilled maintenance workers, security guards, clerical workers, all other professional employees and all other non-professional employees, may form bargaining groups.

Previously, in order to organize at most hospitals, all employees had to form a unit. This made organizing more difficult and unlikely, both unions and hospital officials agreed, because employees with different job descriptions and concerns did not want to organize together.

Arthur Sponseller, vice president of human resources for the Hospital Council of Southern California, noted that there has been a significant amount of organizing in eastern U.S. cities, such as Chicago, but it really hasn't occurred locally. Sponseller said hospital officials expected a lot more union activity at Southland hospitals.

Rick Albert, a labor attorney with the Los Angeles law firm of Weissburg & Aronson who represents a number of Southland hospitals, said there has been plenty of time for unions to file petitions, since the new organizing rules went into effect last spring. Albert said he's stumped by the lack of activity.

"When the law was changed, a lot of the so-called experts expected to see a number of petitions," Albert said. "I would think most people on both sides of the fence expected to see (petitions filed). A lot of people are saying it's the economy, that employees are less willing to take chances."

Union officials said last spring that they were targeting nurses because they make up the largest employee group at hospitals and they have a lot of leverage since there is a shortage of trained nurses. Recently, however, there is some evidence that the nursing shortage is easing because of the recession.

Jim Moreau, health care employee organizer for the American Federation of Nurses, said that a case could be made that nurses may be less likely to organize if they fear losing their jobs during the recession. But he noted that financial problems at St. Joseph Medical Center, which resulted in more than 150 employees being laid off, is one reason the nurses there want to organize.

Employees were mad when the hospital laid off long-term workers, Moreau said. He added that 300 employees signed a petition protesting the decision to terminate the IV team, a team of nurses who specialize in setting up patients with intravenous needles.

Bullock said that employees are also upset because they will have to pay more for their own medical insurance, despite the fact that under the St. Joseph plan, employees get a lot of medical services from the hospital.

Some employee who want to organize the hospital believe that the job cuts and benefits reductions are related to the hospital building a $70 million extension, Bullock said.

Barbara Durham, assistant administrator of human resources, said St. Joseph has had some financial problems and the hospital "is doing everything we possibly can to communicate these issues" of financial hardship to employees.

The deductible on the employees' medical plan has been raised to $250 from $150 and there is "a small co-payment" expected of employees who use the hospital's medical services, Durham said. But she added, "If you were an employee of the Broadway, you wouldn't expect to get clothes off the rack for free."

Durham noted that the Teamsters Union had tried and failed three years ago to organize the hospital. The Teamsters were voted down by 83 percent of employees, she noted.

Since then employees, especially nurses, have had more input about hospital procedures, Durham said.

But Bullock said that promises made to nurses about having more input were broken, which is one reason nurses contacted the union about organizing several months ago.