Hundreds of members of Service Employees International Union Local 1107 plan to strike at 7 a.m. on Monday. The union will pay their wages with two strike funds; the hospital's owner will pay travel and lodging costs, plus premiums on wages, for temporary workers hired through an agency that specializes in providing workers during labor strikes.

According to the union's research department, U.S. Nursing Corp. — from which the hospitals will get replacements — pays workers more than $100 an hour, including wages and per diem. The US Nursing Web site says it will pay $42 an hour for nurses and $30 an hour for techs, plus bonuses.

"This is an incredibly costly thing for the hospital to do — so why do it?" said Jane Mc-Alevey, executive director of Local 1107. "There is no economic incentive other than they want to kill the union."

It is unclear how many individuals will strike. McAlevey counts nearly 1,000 members in the bargaining units. The hospitals say nearly 1,000 are covered by collective bargaining agreements, but fewer are union members and some union members do not plan to strike.

The strike will still be called off if an agreement is reached before Dec. 4. Leaders from both sides were urged to resolve the dispute at a Nov. 29 meeting called by Mayor Oscar Goodman and Rory Reid, Clark County Commission chairman.

But a resolution is unlikely after an unproductive, last-ditch effort at a Nov. 27 meeting overseen by a federal mediator.

Fences went up around the campuses, which are the last for-profit hospitals remaining in contract negotiations with the SEIU.

"We must take steps to protect our patients and employees in anticipation of a strike," said a statement provided by Valley Health System, the local entity that owns Valley, Desert Springs and the non-unionized Spring Valley and Summerlin hospitals. Valley Health's parent is Universal Health Services, a Pennsylvania-based national hospital chain.

The statement continued: "As always, our No. 1 priority remains protecting our patients and providing high-quality health care regardless of the SEIU's intent to disrupt our operations."

Privacy screening surrounds a physician parking lot at Valley Hospital on Wednesday. The screening and other fencing has apparently been erected in anticipation of a strike by nurses scheduled for Monday. Photo by Steve Marcus

The hospitals estimate that the union has lost members since contracts expired in April and May for the three units. At that point, the last time nurses had dues taken out of their paychecks, 68 percent of Desert Springs nurses, 50 percent of Desert Springs techs and 62 percent of Valley nurses were SEIU members, the hospital said.

The SEIU estimates that 75 to 80 percent of employees eligible to be in three bargaining groups — two nurses' and one technical workers' units — are Local 1107 members. An election on Nov. 18 at the union hall showed 95 percent approved the strike.

According to federal rules, the strike notice was given 10 days in advance. Workers involved in surgeries will not walk out at 7 a.m.

The union's strike funds include one made up of contributions from other locals, of up to $1 million, and another run by the union's national office. Local 1107 has not calculated how much it will need or how long it expects a strike could last, McAlevey said.

"Given the nursing shortage, with 1,000 nurses standing up for their rights, I hardly can imagine Las Vegas tolerating the situation for very long," McAlevey said.

The hospitals' statement said it offered workers a 15 percent raise over three years, which would "place nurses among the most highly compensated in Southern Nevada." McAlevey said that raise would only bring Valley Health workers up to the market rate that is earned by SEIU employees at other hospitals.

The union's top issues in the negotiations include staffing and a company match for a retirement fund. Nurses are also offended by management's treatment of them in recent months, McAlevey said.

Local 1107 has accused the hospitals of unlawful surveillance and confrontations by anti-union consultants hired by the company. The SEIU calls them "union busters," while the hospitals contend that the consultants were hired for their expertise in labor matters.

Regardless, the union has filed 20 complaints through the National Labor Relations Board against Desert Springs and Valley. Eight so far have been found substantial by the NLRB, which will hold a hearing on Jan. 30 to discuss all valid complaints.

Eight charges were filed by those hospitals against the union, but authorities found them insubstantial.

The SEIU agreements this year include the three St. Rose Dominican Hospitals and HCA's Sunrise and Southern Hills hospitals. Negotiations are still ongoing at the public University Medical Center; McAlevey said those are "on track."

Pennsylvania-based Universal Health Services, which owns the Valley Health System, has clashed with the SEIU in Las Vegas before. In 2005, Spring Valley Hospital was the site of a dramatic campaign before a union election, which the SEIU lost.