When the 330-member nurses union at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center staged two one-day strikes Sept. 15 and Oct. 23, union President Anne Clarke became the strikers' chief spokeswoman.
The Canoga Park resident, a nurse since 1953, took a firm stand against the hospital's owner, Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. Tenet recently agreed to renew negotiations if the union canceled its strike, which it did. The union, the American Federation of Nurses, Service Employees International, Local 535, and Tenet are scheduled to meet tomorrow in Glendale.
Clarke, 66, a neonatal nurse who has worked at the Tarzana hospital for 24 years, spoke recently with Scott Holleran. Holleran, 33, is editorial director of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine, a nonprofit patient advocacy group based in Newport Beach.
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Holleran: What was the core idea behind the nurses' strike?
Clarke: To make us whole. We lost time-and-a-half, we gave money back graciously [agreed not to take raises], we did not strike and we never really recouped everything because we've been on a wage freeze for 5 1/2 years. The only people who received raises were fairly new to the hospital. Seventy-five percent of the nurses at Tarzana have been there for over 18 years. So the people who make the hospital work--and I'm not putting down people who have been there for less time--got nothing.
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Holleran: What are your demands?
Clarke: An across-the-board 6% raise the first year and a 4% raise the second year. [The current system] divides people. We see it as a union-breaking issue. You immediately create problems between people with the current two-tiered system. The staff gets upset--which is exactly what [Tenet] wants. An across-the-board raise is fair.
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Holleran: Whose decision was it to ask for an across-the-board raise?
Clarke: The entire bargaining team. The team represents the membership. We distribute surveys to union members and nonunion members a month ahead of negotiations. They're supposed to return the survey and, therefore, the bargaining issues are their issues.
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Holleran: What percentage of surveys were returned?
Clarke: Probably 40%.
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Holleran: Do union members vote to approve the terms?
Clarke: No.
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Holleran: Doesn't Tenet have the right to reject an across-the-board raise and reward nurses based on merit?
