Scott Byington got fired a few days before Christmas, but that’s not the half of it. Prior to being terminated over the phone, Byington, a registered nurse at St. Francis Medical Center just south of Los Angeles in Lynwood, had persevered through more than three years of wage freezes and drastic staff cuts imposed by his new employer.
St. Francis has said Byington was among a group of workers who violated company policy when they hand-delivered a protest letter to the Ontario headquarters of the hospital’s owner, Prime Healthcare. In an interview with Capital & Main, Byington laughed while describing the number of ways in which the company’s claim can be disproved.
An unfair labor practice charge by his union may eventually get Byington his job back. And the attachment of social justice attorney Gloria Allred, who last week filed a lawsuit seeking damages on behalf of Byington and eight other fired union activists, is perhaps a curveball Prime Healthcare didn’t see coming.
But the heart of the matter, Byington said this week, is St. Francis workers’ frustrations with their ongoing inability to care adequately for their patients. Those issues are nowhere near resolved. Yet not only would Byington return to work at the hospital if given the chance, but he’d stay.
“I care about the patients in our hospital, and I care about the people I work with,” said Byington, who has worked at St. Francis for nearly 30 years. “You can buy the hospital. You don’t get to buy the people inside.”
Although the firings marked an ugly escalation, the problems at St. Francis aren’t new. Since Prime Healthcare took over in 2020, nurses and other staffers have repeatedly warned that the profit-first company is bleeding the hospital dry, cutting experienced workers in favor of younger, cheaper hires — and fewer of them. Union members have conducted informational pickets and, late last year, struck four Prime-owned facilities in Southern California, including St. Francis.
A communications director for Prime Healthcare, which operates 45 hospitals nationally, did not immediately respond to questions from Capital & Main. In previous media statements, the company has denied that Byington and the others were fired in retaliation for their union activism, with St. Francis contending that the firings were for a violation of its Standards of Conduct policy. The hospital has also noted that despite a shortage of health care workers nationally, it is hiring “more nurses and staff than ever before.”
“What they won’t tell you — or us — is how many nurses and staff are leaving, and we know that number is very high,” said Mayra Castaneda, an ultrasound technician at St. Francis and one of the Prime Nine, as the fired workers have been dubbed by their unions. “I can tell you that over 100 people right now have told me they don’t think they can stay on any longer.”
Byington and three other fired RNs are represented by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Healthcare Professionals, while the five other workers are members of SEIU/United Healthcare Workers West. (Disclosure: UNAC/UHCP and SEIU are financial supporters of Capital & Main.) Byington was part of the negotiating team for UNAC/UHCP, which agreed to terms on a new contract late last year; he was fired shortly thereafter. Castaneda and her four colleagues constituted the entire bargaining group for SEIU-UHW; their firings derailed the ongoing negotiations on a new deal, although the union was already striking to demand safer working conditions and adequate staffing.
Byington and Castaneda both said the firings stemmed from their decision to show up at Prime’s Ontario headquarters on Nov. 30 armed with letters of support for their cause from government officials, including Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn and State Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel of Encino. Byington was told he trespassed, even though he said Prime workers held open the doors of the headquarters so he could enter and later told him not to leave because company officials were coming downstairs to receive the letters.
“It was comical. Nothing they said was the truth,” Byington said. “But they’ve been after me for a long time. I’m experienced and credentialed, so I was the highest-paid nurse there, and I’ve been active in the union for decades.”
Partly because he says the claims against him are specious, “I do really believe this is temporary,” Byington said. Companies firing union activists is not rare, as it can have a chilling effect on other workers even if those firings are eventually reversed. The process of labor appeals is often arduous and time-consuming, something companies may count on as they try to discourage union activity.
Allred’s involvement is something else entirely. “They [at Prime Healthcare] definitely didn’t see that lawsuit coming,” said Castaneda. “But look, they fired the entire negotiating team for our union as soon as our strike began. It’s pretty obvious what was going on.”
At a news conference last week, Allred said her lawsuit contains “very serious and disturbing allegations,” adding, “All nine of these dedicated health care workers were retaliated against and wrongfully terminated in violation of their rights under California law.”
Still, Castaneda, like Byington, will return to St. Francis if given the opportunity. A 25-year employee, she knows the critical importance of the facility, which includes the only Level II trauma center in the area. She said she loves the hospital, not the company that owns it.
“I live in this area. This is my community,” Castaneda said. “This hospital serves a diverse population, and we’ve been trying to do more with less for years. It has to stop.”
