California Nurse Says She Was Fired For Union Organizing

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/7859

Parkview Community Hospital in Riverside, Calif. says a nurse was fired for “low morale.” The nurse says it was because she was a primary organizer for the United Nurses Association. Leilani Albano has more:

Deirdre Kirkwood, who was accustomed to receiving only positive work evaluations, was shocked by her termination and what employers called her “poor morale.”

: “I never could have imagined this. Two months ago if you would have asked me I would have said never…never!”

Kirkwood is among a growing number of Parkwood nurses who joined a union organizing campaign that began last November. While she was not the only registered nurse participating in the effort, union officials said her success in getting other R.N.’s to join the campaign may have gotten her fired. Kyle Serrette is organizing director for United Nurses Association of California:

: "Well, it is pretty common for employers to fire workers when they are trying to form a union and management doesn’t want the nurses to come together and share in the decision making. Their solution for it was to fire her."

Parkview officials didn’t stop with her firing. Serrette says that since her termination Kirkwood, who continues to organize nurses,has had to face intimidation, harassment, and surveillance.

[Adsos Letter]

1. Is Parkwood associated with a larger HMO group?