Nurse's union knocks on hospital's door

Representatives from the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United held a press conference Friday morning, Dec. 14 across the street from Fallbrook Hospital to publicly announce their intent to establish a union contract under their organization for nurses working at the facility.

“We have been working to try and establish a union nurse’s organization here at Fallbrook Hospital,” said James Moy. “The nurses here voted to join the California Nurses Association in May.”

Moy said the union would try to offer “solutions” to things like high employee turnover, working environment, and economic standards. The union promotes the use of staff RNs, frowns on the use of registry nurses in scheduling, and claims the turnover rate of nurses at the facility is “high.”

“We are trying to offer a solution to problems, but we have had no response from the management,” said Moy.

Administrators at Fallbrook Hospital were only able to issue the following statement, due to the nature of the discussion regarding personnel.

“Thousands of people have experienced the quality, compassionate care provided by the employees of this hospital. We value our nurses and all of our employees who are devoted to the care of their patients.”

“We remain fully committed to the safety of our patients and the delivery of quality care. Our staffing meets state guidelines and is based on the medical needs of our patients. Patient satisfaction with our care is the highest among hospitals in our market, as reported on HospitalCompare.”

Union representatives invited registered nurse Susan Phares to speak at the press conference. Phares, who had been employed on two separate occasions for about five years each by Fallbrook Hospital, was reportedly recently terminated.

“The reason they gave for letting me go was just a ‘scapegoat,’” said Phares. “They said I had spoken inappropriately <about or to> a doctor. I had been having trouble getting a hold of her.”

Phares called losing her job as a “punitive” action. Union representatives said under their contracts, punitive disciplinary action on the part of a facility’s management is greatly reduced.

The majority of union representatives at the press conference were from out of town, including Barstow and Long Beach. Conversation between union representatives reflected the fact that numerous hospitals nationwide were being approached in the same manner as Fallbrook in order to try and unionize facilities.