By Henni Espinosa, ABS-CBN North America Bureau
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San Francisco, CA– Filipino nurses and their unions, California Nurses Association are suing one of the state’s biggest chain of hospitals for racial discrimination.

Siony Servillion, a nurse in the United States for 35 years, obtained her nursing degree in the Philippines. She claimed her employers, Sutter Health-California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and St. Luke’s Hospital, have made a conscious effort not to hire Filipino nurses.

“We got hurt by their actions toward us.  We work hard and we want to be treated the same way as other nurses,” Servillion said.

The California Nurses Association presented testimonies of former nurse managers who allege that hospital administration told them not to hire Filipino nurses.

“Filipinos are always related, or know each other and that’s not good,” read a document of the testimonies. “Foreign nurses are hard to understand.”

The union filed a class action grievance against Sutter Health-CPMC and St. Luke’s Hospital for discriminatory practices last Wednesday.

The group also filed a complaint before the San Francisco Commission on Human Rights on the same day, urging them to launch an investigation on the hospital chain.

“Filipino registered nurses are a major part of the workforce. They comprise about 60 to 70 percent of any hospital here in the Bay Area. So I was appalled when I heard about this allegation,” said Zenei Cortez, president of the California Nurses Association.

Cortez claimed that management stopped hiring Filipino nurses since they became active in union protests against Sutter Health-CPMC and St. Luke’s Hospital.

“We want the nurses to know that they have the support of the community,” said Terry Valen, executive director of the Filipino Community Center.

The California Nurses Association said that in 2008, Filipino nurses comprised 48 percent of new hires at St. Luke’s Hospital.  They said that number has gone down to just ten percent today.

Sutter Health-CPMC and St. Luke’s Hospital spokesperson Emilia Maninang, who is of Filipino descent, denied allegations of discrimination.

As a nurse manager, Maninang hires nurses.  “I have never heard of that and if I was instructed not to hire Filipino nurses, I would be the first one to protest that and call for equal opportunity,” she said.

Maninang also denied claims from the California Nurses Association that management retaliates against the nurses involved in union activities. “They have the right to be part of a union and we respect their agenda.”

Maninang said the hiring of foreign nurses decreased because of the bad economy and the nurses’ visa retrogression.  “That’s not because management discriminates against Filipino nurses,” she said.

The California Nurses Association is calling on all Filipino nurses who believe they have discriminated by Sutter Health-CPMC and St. Luke’s Hospital to contact the union and join a possible class action lawsuit, in case the class action grievance and the complaint before the human rights commission do not progress.

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