Cedars-Sinai Loses Bid to Thwart Nurses' Union Vote
As deteriorating working conditions including understaffing, lack of health benefits, and low pay lead an ever growing number of nurses to vote for union representation (see WIT's for Jan. 9, 2003, Dec. 9 and 4, and Oct. 17, 2002, and Sep. 25, 2001), the powerful labor movement among California's nurses has recorded its latest victories. After a year-long struggle by nurses at Antelope Valley Hospital, the election of two union-supported members to the Antelope Valley Health Care District Board has resulted in recognition of the nurses' membership in the California Nurses Association (CNA) and the initiation of negotiations for a first contract (see WIT for July 31, 2002). Nurses at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center are also celebrating after a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge ruled that there was no merit to hospital administrators' legal challenges to the nurses' vote for membership in the CNA.