Two nurses' unions battled at three Jackson hospitals over which would best represent workers.
By John Dorschner Miami Herald Decenber 16m 2008
The National Nurses Organizing Committee said Monday it has filed documents with the state accusing the Jackson Health System and a rival union of trying to stop it from organizing nurses.
NNOC spokesman Fernando Losada said his group has asked the Florida Public Relations Commission to stop ''illegal activities'' on the part of Jackson Health System and the Service Employees International Union, which represents Jackson employees.
NNOC is a wing of the California Nurses Association, which has become engaged in bitter battles with the SEIU at other places around the country. NNOC represents only registered nurses while the SEIU has organized a broad range of healthcare workers.
DISMISSES CHARGES
Martha Baker, president of SEIU Local 1991, which represents nurses and other workers at Jackson, said the charges were nonsense. ``It's a national fight. They're trying to mess with an SEIU local wherever they can.''
Jackson spokesman Robert Alonso said the system did not comment on ``pending litigation.''
Baker said 96 percent of the nurses ratified a new contract last week, but it still must be approved by the County Commission.
Losada said his group will ask the commission to stop that approval so that it can see if nurses want the NNOC to represent them.
The NNOC has been trying to meet with nurses at Jackson's three hospitals. It wants to have an election at the Jackson North campus so that nurses can decide which group they want to represent them, Losada said. Resistance has been ''particularly sharp'' at Jackson Memorial, Losada said, with security guards refusing to let NNOC representatives in to talk to nurses. SEIU leaders have used ''intimidation and harassment'' to keep out members of the rival union, he said.
MOVING TOO FAST
Losada accused Jackson and the SEIU of into rushing into a new contract in which there isn't even a wage agreement so that they could avoid having to deal with the NNOC.
Baker, the SEIU leader, said NNOC representatives were free to go into the hospital cafeterias or other public areas of hospitals but weren't allowed on patient floors.
''They can't win,'' Baker said, ``but they're like a pesky mosquito.''
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