Spotlight on Activists: Silenced No Longer
IRVINE & LAKEWOOD, CALIFORNIA
Scott Byington, an RN at St. Francis Hospital and vice president of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals/AFSCME, remembers getting a midnight call from nurses at the non-union Lakewood Medical Center. "Some of our nurses also work there," Byington says. "Their unorganized colleagues called asking how to form a union."
For over a year, Byington and a cadre of UNAC members worked with Lakewood and Irvine Medical Center staff, who won elections in both places and with them a voice on the job for 360 nurses. The newly organized units then secured two of the best contracts ever negotiated with a Southern California, for-profit hospital.
Lakewood and Irvine are run by the huge Tenet corporation, which poured major resources into fighting unionization — especially intimidating staff. When things got tough, the UNAC volunteer member organizers shared their own experiences and successes — keeping morale high.
The Lakewood nurses trusted Byington. He described how St. Francis' nurses had turned contract negotiations around just by their very presence, crowding into the lobby and hallways of the hotel where bargaining was taking place. Their solidarity squashed management's attempts to eliminate overtime and premium pay.
That example proved useful when a Lakewood activist was fired. Staff from throughout the hospital — doctors, nurses, ancillary workers — converged on Human Resources. When they demanded proof that the nurse involved had not been fired for her organizing efforts, she was reinstated.
TEAM EFFORT. Asela Omilig-Espiritu, RN, had been part of UNAC organizing efforts at Kaiser Orange County, and she was ready to lend a hand at Irvine and Lakewood — starting with those who picked up shifts at her facility and fanning out. As she puts it, "I networked from within and from the outside." Indeed she did, calling potential Irvine union members during one child's tennis lesson and meeting with nurses at another child's theatrical performance. With every contact, she gathered more names and phone numbers.
At Kaiser Harbor City, Rose Aldape, RN, took vacation days to help the Lakewood nurses with their drive. The nurses often set up a meeting room and came to speak with her. "I told them," says Aldape, "that with no contract, there's no one standing behind you."
She remembers that, at one of the first-contract rallies, "A patient came outside to show her support for the nurses. We thanked her but said she should return to her room. We were concerned about her health."
The nurses' rallies were a highlight for Mary Ferrell, RN, UNAC treasurer at St. Francis — even when "management accidentally/on purpose set off the lawn sprinklers and we had to march through the water."
Like the other activists, Ferrell has a new organizing project: Robert F. Kennedy Hospital. She expects some nurse leaders to come soon for lunch.
— Susan Ellen Holleran
