UNAC/UHCP and Allies Win–Attorney General Blocks Sale of Victor Valley Community Hospital to Prime
September 2011
On August 17, UNAC/UHCP, along with family members of a patient victimized by Prime, community groups, doctors and other unions all packed Victorville City Hall to oppose Prime Healthcare. There, we testified at a hearing with the California State Attorney General’s Office and urged denial of approval of the sale of Victor Valley Community Hospital to Prime Healthcare Services Foundation, a nonprofit organization set up by the owners of the for-profit California hospital chain, Prime Healthcare Services, which operates Garden Grove Hospital and Chino Valley Medical Center.
On September 20, Attorney General Kamala Harris announced she was denying her consent to the sale of Victor Valley Community Hospital to Prime Healthcare. This means Prime will be unable to purchase the hospital.
In August, Garden Grove Registered Nurses’ Association President Helen Bouman, RN, and UNAC/UHCP Staff Attorney Lisa Demidovich both testified about Prime Healthcare’s unlawful and damaging treatment of its RNs at Garden Grove and CVMC.
“At Garden Grove Hospital, Prime let all the insurance contracts lapse,” said Bouman. “If they do that here, where are people going to go?”
“Prime proposed massive cuts for RNs in pay and benefits to grow the Prime Empire at the expense of the Garden Grove community,” Demidovich testified.
“Chino Valley RNs voted overwhelmingly for representation by UNAC/UHCP,” she continued, “but Prime has ignored that decision and entered into a four-front legal battle to avoid its legal obligation to bargain with the RNs.”