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NewsBriefs_Sept 10/5/10 7:02 PM Page 8 NEWS BRIEFS always related, or know each other." Chris Hanks, a former director of critical care services for CPMC, states that shortly after he was hired, a vacancy opened up in an intensive care unit. "Diana Karner told me that 'you need to hire someone right away, but you are not to hire any Filipino nurses,'" Hanks' affidavit reads. The discrimination case is just the latest example of strife between Sutter's CPMC and the local community, which includes a large concentration of Filipino residents. Three years ago, CPMC announced that it would discontinue acute care at the St. Luke's campus as part of a larger reorganization plan. The San Francisco Board of Filipino RNs Charge Sutter Hospital with Racial Discrimination CALIFORNIA he california nurses Association recently filed a class action grievance against a major California hospital chain, charging it is engaging in systematic discrimination against Filipino nurses at its San Francisco medical centers. The grievance, filed Aug. 18 against Sutter Health and its San Francisco-based California Pacific Medical Center, accuses hospital management of repeatedly instructing supervisors not to hire Filipino and other foreign-born nurses. CNA also asked San Francisco's Human Rights Commission to investigate the statements and the precipitous drop in Filipino new hires at CPMC's St. Luke's campus since Sutter took over the hospital's management in 2007. "We call on Sutter to immediately cease and desist this unconscionable practice of employment discrimination," said CNA CoPresident Zenei Cortez, RN at a press conference announcing the complaint. Leaders of a variety of local Filipino organizations also attended the press conference and signed a letter protesting the hospital's policies. CNA calculations, based on data provided by the hospital system, show that while T 8 N AT I O N A L N U R S E 66 percent of RNs at St. Luke's in 2007 were Filipino, Filipino RNs made up only 10 percent of the hospital's new hires between 2008 and 2010. Filipinos are the largest group of foreignborn nurses in the United States, due to the similar nursing education systems in both countries, the proficiency of most Filipinos in speaking English, and the historic relationship between the two countries. "It has been clear for decades that Filipino nurses are an integral part of the medical system here in the United States," said Lillian Galedo, executive director of Filipino Advocates for Justice, a nonprofit organization. "Healthcare jobs are an important stabilizing factor in the Filipino community." But despite their comparable qualifications, Filipino nurses—like other people of color—sometimes face prejudice on the job. Earlier this year, four Filipino emergency room nurses in Maryland filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after their hospital fired them for speaking Tagalog during a break. In the CPMC case, several former supervisors have signed declarations recounting conversations with the hospital's vice president of nursing, Diana Karner, in which Karner complained that Filipino and foreign-born nurses have accents and "are W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G Supervisors censured CPMC for "medical redlining" of communities of color for its plans to cut services at St. Luke's. Nurses joined with community members to successfully fight the closure, but Sutter still plans to scale back. Meanwhile, nurses there say they continue to earn lower wages than their counterparts at other CPMC campuses, while caring for a low-income population with complex health problems. "I've been working at St. Luke's for 35 years. I'm proud to be taking care of medically underserved patients because those are the ones who need my help," said Siony Servillon, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit. "But then when you hear something like this, it just hits you in the gut. It really demoralized me and my coworkers." While CNA filed the grievance on behalf of a particular Filipino RN who was denied employment at CPMC. Cortez said the union hopes other RNs will come forward and share their experiences. St. Luke's nurses, many of them Filipino, have been some of the most vocal opponents of the hospital's effort to reduce services to low-income communities of color, Cortez said. "CPMC has apparently responded by trying to erode solidarity among nurses at St. Luke's and the immigrant community," she said. —Felicia Mello SEPTEMBER 2010