A billionaire hospital executive, his daughter and another senior leader say they were singled out in what they describe as an alarming nurses union campaign in their upscale Los Angeles community. Fliers distributed throughout the neighborhood allegedly urged people to “track them down” and claimed they “can’t hide.”
Dr. Prem Reddy, the founder, chairman and CEO of Prime Healthcare, alleges in a new lawsuit that the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United went beyond protected labor activism by bringing their campaign to the homes and families of company executives in affluent Brentwood.
According to the complaint, union supporters circulated materials containing aerial images of the executives’ residences, home square-footage information and other details about their private properties. The lawsuit also alleges that banners and placards were placed on utility poles, streetlights, trees and privately owned cars.
The alleged campaign left relatives worried about their personal safety, the filing says. It claims younger children were kept indoors and prevented from playing outside in their own backyard because of those concerns.
Prime Healthcare is asking the court to issue a temporary restraining order, followed by preliminary and permanent injunctions, against the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United.
The legal action arrives less than two years after the Dec. 4, 2024, killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Midtown Manhattan street, a case that reverberated across the healthcare business.
Luigi Mangione later pleaded guilty to stalking and murdering Thompson and is set to be sentenced on Dec. 18.
Prime Healthcare ranks among the largest health systems in the United States, running 51 hospitals in 14 states and employing 60,000 workers and affiliated physicians.
The healthcare company generates roughly $7.4 billion in annual revenue.
The lawsuit says the alleged intimidation effort began Sept. 3, when union activists entered the Brentwood area where members of the Reddy family and other Prime Healthcare executives reside.
Reddy himself does not live in Brentwood, the complaint states, but is an active member of the community through family members who live there, including his daughter and grandchildren.
Fliers headlined ‘Where in the World is Dr. Reddy?’ allegedly urged members of the public to ‘track down’ the billionaire healthcare boss,
The materials included images of at least three executives’ homes and details including aerial photographs, square footage and descriptions of their properties, according to the complaint.
Among those allegedly targeted was Reddy’s daughter Sunitha Reddy, Prime’s chief revenue officer and vice president of operations, as well as company president and chief medical officer Dr. Sunny Bhatia.
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Prime claims it took hours to remove banners and clean up litter left around the neighborhood.
The lawsuit says the material was distressing because it appeared near executives’ homes and a nearby school, where children witnessed the alleged campaign.
‘Sunitha Reddy’s home is located near a school. Younger children were thereafter kept inside and could not use their own private yard to play out of concern for their safety,’ the complaint says.
Prime alleges the union’s aim was ‘to inflict stress on the families of Prime Healthcare executives’ to gain leverage in labor negotiations with its hospitals.
The company claims it sent the union a cease-and-desist letter on Sept. 9 demanding that the residential targeting stop.
But according to the complaint, a union attorney contacted Prime the following day and allegedly suggested the targeting of executives’ homes could end if Reddy agreed to meet with the union – conduct Prime’s lawyers claim was ‘tantamount to economic extortion.’
Prime also claims it sought help from the LAPD on Sept. 9 and 10 but received no response, and separately reported the issue to the Los Angeles City Council, again without receiving a response.
The dispute escalated further after Bryant Aguilar, a California Nurses Association representative who works at Prime-owned Centinela Hospital, allegedly sent a message calling on nurses to gather in the neighborhood for a Sept. 11 rally.
‘We will be joining together in Dr. Reddy’s neighborhood and rally near his residence,’ the message said, according to the lawsuit.
The message called on Centinela nurses to participate, and Prime said the hospital employs hundreds of nurses, raising fears that a large crowd could assemble outside executives’ homes.
Prime is asking a judge to bar the unions from alleged harassment and intimidation around executives’ homes and families, including targeted picketing within 300 feet of their homes and unpermitted banners or signs.
The company is also seeking nominal and punitive damages.
The California Nurses Association was contacted for comment.
The union posted a video of members protesting Monday on X with the caption: ‘Nurses across the country are rising up systemwide against Prime Healthcare because Prime endangers patients and nurses by putting profits above all else.’