A billionaire healthcare boss, his daughter and another top executive allege they were targeted in a menacing nurse union campaign that plastered their families’ exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood with fliers telling the public to ‘track them down’ and warning they ‘can’t hide.’
Prime Healthcare founder, chairman and CEO Dr. Prem Reddy claims in a lawsuit the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United crossed the line from lawful labor protest into harassment by targeting executives’ homes and families in wealthy Brentwood.
The lawsuit alleges union activists posted fliers featuring aerial photographs, square-footage details and other information about executives’ private homes, while banners and signs were attached to telephone poles, streetlights, trees and private vehicles.
The campaign allegedly left families fearing for their safety and resulted in younger children being kept inside and unable to play in their own yard, according to the complaint.
Prime is seeking a temporary restraining order as well as preliminary and permanent injunctions against the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United.
The lawsuit comes less than two years after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down on a Midtown Manhattan street on Dec. 4, 2024 – a killing that sent shockwaves through the healthcare industry.
Luigi Mangione has since pleaded guilty to stalking and murdering Thompson and is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18.
Prime Healthcare is one of the nation’s largest health systems, operating 51 hospitals across 14 states, with 60,000 staff and affiliated physicians.
The firm earns about $7.4 billion a year in revenue.
The alleged intimidation campaign began on Sept. 3, when union activists descended on the Brentwood neighborhood where members of Reddy’s family and other Prime executives live, according to the lawsuit.
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.
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.’
