Tenet nurses file unfair labor practice charges By L.M. SIXEL Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Aug. 12, 2008, 12:28PM
Registered nurses at two Tenet Healthcare hospitals in Houston filed unfair labor practice charges today against the California Nurses Association and Tenet Healthcare over the provisions of a neutrality agreement.
The charges, which were filed with the National Labor Relations Board in Fort Worth, alleged that an agreement negotiated between the union and Tenet subverted the board's role in union elections, allowed Tenet to handpick its own union and discriminated against the opposing nurses by agreeing not to give them equal meeting room space.
The dispute revolves around union activities at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center and Park Plaza Hospital.
The California Nurses Association won an election in March when the nurses at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center voted 119-111 to join the union. According to the unfair labor practice charges, which were filed with the assistance of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, the union is currently trying to organize the nurses at Park Plaza.
Representatives from Tenet and the California Nurses Association have not seen the charges.
"The nurses have been incredibly heroic and fighting for representation to enable them to be stronger advocates for their patients," said Chuck Idelson, spokesman for the Oakland, Calif., based California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee Texas. That, he added, is why they wanted representation in the first place.
"To continue to ignore the will of the majority is undemocratic and a slap in the face to the principals on which this nation was founded," said Idelson.
A spokesman from Tenet said he needed some time to study the charges before commenting.