Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare has sued the California Nurses Association, an affiliate of National Nurses United, as well as NNU, alleging the union targeted its CEO and other executives and their families with harassment and intimidation near their homes.
The complaint, filed Sept. 14 in Los Angeles County Superior Court and shared with Becker’s, seeks a temporary restraining order and injunctions barring residential picketing, unpermitted bannering and unpermitted assemblies near the executives’ homes, as well as nominal and punitive damages.
Prime Healthcare alleges in the filing that union representatives canvassed a Los Angeles neighborhood Sept. 3 with fliers describing the homes of CEO Prem Reddy, MD, Chief Revenue Officer and Vice President of Operations Sunitha Reddy and President and Chief Medical Officer Sunny Bhatia, MD. The complaint also alleges the union planned a Sept. 11 rally near a residence. The health system is the sole plaintiff, and no individuals are named as plaintiffs.
“The union has engaged in a campaign of harassment and intimidation that goes far beyond protected labor activity,” Prime Healthcare’s legal counsel said in a statement shared with Becker’s, adding that the lawsuit was filed after efforts to address the conduct failed.
The California Nurses Association categorically denied the allegations and said it expects to be vindicated in court. The union said its public campaign is tied to ongoing collective bargaining and organizing at Prime Healthcare facilities and to unfair labor practice charges it has filed, according to a statement shared with Becker’s. The union said it had not been served with the complaint, as of Sept. 16.
The litigation comes amid broader labor activity at Prime Healthcare. Nurses and healthcare workers at four Prime hospitals in California, Nevada and Illinois held one-day strikes Sept. 3, while nurses at other Prime facilities in Illinois and Maine have sought union elections.
