Rancho Springs Nurses Divided About Unionizing; Rally Planned Friday

Nurses at Rancho Springs and Inland Valley medical centers who want to unionize plan to rally Friday outside the Murrieta location, the media has been advised.

The “Rally for a Free and Fair Election” is scheduled to take place from noon to 1 p.m. Friday at 25500 Medical Center Drive in Murrieta.

“Nurses joined by community leaders, are calling for a fair union election free of any intimidation, harassment, or threats by employer Universal Health Services, Inc. (UHS),” wrote Jeff Rogers, a spokesman for United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP).

“These nurses are community residents and family members who are raising their voices to protect their patients and community.”

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)—the federal government agency charged with conducting fair union elections—is investigating UHS based on serious labor law violations, according to Rogers.

“These violations include interrogation, threats, and harassment of nurses who just want to provide the best services and care to patients by maintaining high working standards,” Rogers wrote.

When reached by phone Thursday, Rogers estimated that "dozens" of nurses planned to attend the rally at Rancho Springs Medical Center.

“This is not a strike, this is a one-hour rally,” said Rogers, noting nurses from Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar have also been invited. “They want to vote to join the union to protect patient care, to help improve patient care at the hospitals.”

According to Rogers, there was January election planned. If enough nurses voted in favor, the hospital staff would have become unionized.

But hospital management allegedly thwarted that attempt, according to Rogers.

“Specifically...nurses were actually pulled away from patient care and told to go watch mandatory anti-union videos, which calls into question what the hospital’s priorities are,” Rogers said.

That is when UNAC/UHCP, touted as having the largest Southern California membership of nurses and other healthcare professionals, filed charges of unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board, Los Angeles Region.

A new election date of July 18-19 has been set.

“This rally is to call for a free and fair election in July, free of the threats,” Rogers said.

Not all nurses at the hospital are in favor of becoming unionized, however.

Joan Terslinger, a registered nurse who works in the medical surgery ward at Rancho Springs, is among those who are gathering signatures to ask the union to leave. She said they’ve gathered about 200 of the 300 needed.

“There’s a great percentage who don’t want to join the union,” Terslinger told Patch. “The nurses are pretty happy. There are always things you can complain about, but for the most part they don’t want to be paying dues to the union as well.”

Prior to coming to Rancho Springs in 2009, she worked at a Hemet hospital where she paid dues.

“I didn’t see that they did much for us except collect dues,” Terslinger said.

She recalled a time when Rancho Springs management met with nursing staff to discuss the efforts of some employees to unionize.

“The union is not going to give us both sides of the story,” Terslinger said. “Why shouldn’t the management be able to show us?"

Terslinger said she plans to be on hand for they rally, but knows which side she is on.