Our local paper recently published an article about two Huntington Memorial Hospitals with the claim made by the nurses that they were fired due to their union activity.  However there’s more to the story and below you’ll find both the link to the above mentioned article and my letter to the editor — that the Star News chose not to publish.  I think they were afraid to encourage their readers to think beyond the pablum the union was spoon feeding to both the paper and its readers.

Huntington Memorial terminated 2 nurses; both claim retaliation for efforts to unionize

Dear Editor:

Nurses Almada and Lin with the help of the California Nurses Association (CNA) held a rally to demand that Huntington reinstates the two nurses. The claim is that these two nurses were unfairly terminated due to their support of the recent failed unionization effort at Huntington Memorial. If what they claim is factual, then shame on Huntington Memorial.

However, as a nurse with more than 40 years of experience at all levels of the nursing ladder I’m somewhat hesitant to take their tale at blind faith. Why? Because the hospital is bound by confidentiality in all personnel matters and Almada, Lin, and the CNA know that and are counting on Huntington to adhere to this code. Meanwhile, they can sling all the mud that they want, which they’ve been doing over a year now with support from much of the local media and many local officials who enjoy union support.

I’d prefer to wait and see, because something tells me that there’s more to the tale of the firing of these two nurses than just their involvement in the failed unionization attempt. My nursing instinct tells me that these two nurses may have failed to adhere to our nurse practice act and if this were the case then firing them would’ve been the appropriate action. I also think it is interesting that they’ve made a big deal about going to the NLRB, but said nothing about filing a complaint with our state’s labor board. Not to mention it’d be an act of ultimate stupidity on the part of Huntington to fire any nurse at this time except for cause.