Local Nurses Give Union OK To Call Strike

Union-member registered nurses at West Hills Hospital & Medical Center recently voted to allow their bargaining team to call a strike during contract negotiations if deemed necessary, the Service Employees International Union Local 121RN chapter announced. Ninety percent of the union nurses at the hospital voted in favor of the strike authorization. Eighty percent of the union’s registered nurses at Riverside Community Hospital also voted for the authorization. The full vote will be complete after registered nurses at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks finish voting on Oct. 29. Nurses at the three hospitals are bargaining together for their new contract with the hospitals’ parent company Hospital Corporation of America, or HCA. The nurses’ contracts expired March 31. The union chapter’s bargaining team has introduced contract proposals and has been negotiating with the company over the past nine months. The group has called for higher wages, new policies regarding patient lifting and handling, new policies ensuring on-call nurses are able to get enough rest and a solution for full- and part-time nurses frequently having their shifts canceled or shortened. The union said a strike would not be called until all other means of negotiation have been exhausted. If a strike occurs, the union chapter would give each hospital a 10-day notice of the nurses’ intent to strike.