THOUSAND OAKS : Nurses’ Unionizing Hearing Concludes

Representatives of 300 registered nurses at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks made closing arguments Tuesday at the end of a hearing to determine whether the employees are eligible to form a union.

Jim Moreau of the American Federation of Nurses, Local 535, said the hearing, which stretched 14 days, was the longest he has seen in 20 years of organizing unions all over the country.

“Unfortunately, they’ve accomplished their goal of delaying as long as possible,” Moreau said of the hospital’s management.

But attorneys for the hospital said they were just taking the time necessary to show that registered nurses at the facility are supervisors and therefore cannot form a union.

“They take as long as they take. If they thought we were wasting time, they could object, and the hearing officer could have cut us off a long time ago,” said attorney Glen Mertens.

Hearings of this type usually last a day, said Tony Bisceglia, a National Labor Relations Board hearing officer who presided over the testimony at the Federal Building in Los Angeles.

The nurses, who earn about $21 an hour, now must wait for the NLRB’s regional director to rule on their petition for an election.