Nurses union says labor practices at MountainView unfair

By Jean Reid Norman

Published Wednesday, July 15, 2009 | 2:40 p.m.

Updated Wednesday, July 15, 2009 | 4:18 p.m.

The California Nurses Association has filed charges alleging unfair labor practices by MountainView Hospital in its efforts to organize the 450 registered nurses at the northwest Las Vegas facility.

The National Labor Relations Board said it received the filing today.

The nursing union, which had elections set for next week, alleges the hospital management has launched a campaign to intimidate the RNs and bust the union.

MountainView Hospital spokesman Dan Davidson refuted the claims, saying that the hospital also wants an election.

"The filing by the California nurses union is a typical stall tactic. Our nurses want an election. We want an election. The only group that doesn’t want an election is the C.N.A. because our nurses are going to vote against them and they know it," Davidson said in an e-mail.

The union alleges that administrators have threatened RNs with withdrawal of benefits if the union won, interrogated RNs about their union sympathies, spied on RNs, barred talk supporting the union from employee areas such as the break room and injected religious issues such as abortion trying to sway votes, said Lisa Morowitz, spokeswoman for the National Nurses Organizing Committee of the California Nurses Association.

No union currently represents any employees at MountainView, Morowitz said, and MountainView is the only non-union hospital among the HCA facilities in Las Vegas.

More than a majority of registered nurses signed cards supporting the union's organizing effort at MountainView, Morowitz said. The National Labor Relations Board requires only 30 percent of a group sign interest cards to schedule an election. The California Nurses Association is organizing only RNs, not licensed practical nurses or certified nursing assistants, she said.

"With a majority of nurses supporting the union, HCA should be working with us to negotiate instead of fighting," Morowitz said.

Instead, she said, nurses are taken away from patient care to talk to managers, who try to persuade them to vote against the union and do not allow arguments from the union's side.

"The nurses say there is no chance that this is an environment for a fair election," Morowitz said.

The registered nurses originally asked the union to come in because of their concerns about staffing, Morowitz said. They also want to have more of a voice on the job.