Oregon Public Broadcasting

A dispute is brewing within a union that represents 3000 nurses in the Portland metro area. April Baer reports.

The Union is the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, which speaks for about 3000 nurses -- most of whom work for Kaiser Permanente.

It's part of the American Federation of Teachers, and AFT has now relieved 20 officials of their union duties.

AFT says the local officers violated terms of the union constitution, and indicated some members were interested in changing their organization affiliation, and may have spent some union money toward that effort.

The ousted local leaders, including executive director Kathy Geroux, could not be reached for comment on the national union's actions.

Kaiser released a statement saying the company just learned about the matter late Tuesday and is still gathering facts.

Company spokesman Dave Northfield says Kaiser doesn't expect any disruption. The union's contract is in place until 2010.