For Immediate Release
Wednesday, April 10, 1996
NLRB Seeks Court Order to Require Nation's Largest For-Profit Hospital Chain to Bargain with Nurses Union; Alleges Columbia/HCA Violates Labor Law
Washington, DC —In a move that will make anti-union employers take notice, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) today took steps to win a court order to rebuke the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, Columbia/HCA Inc., for illegally interfering with the rights of registered nurses to freely choose a union.
The Labor Board petitioned a federal court to order Columbia to bargain with the AFSCME affiliate representing registered nurses at its prestigious Audubon Regional Medical Center in Louisville, KY. The interim bargaining order would remain in effect pending final disposition of cases currently before an Administrative Law Judge of the NLRB. A judge is expected to hear the case sometime in the next month.
In this case, the Board alleges Columbia waged an illegal anti-union campaign, threatening reprisals in the event nurses were to vote for the union, and announcing last-minute wage and benefit improvements before the election.
"The Labor Board has fired a shot heard round the hospital world that union-busting will not be tolerated," declared Gerald W. McEntee, president of the 1.3 million member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). "This action says in no uncertain terms that the Labor Board won't tolerate this kind of abuse of the nation's labor law."
In March 1994, Audubon nurses voted 366-220 against representation by the Nurses Professional Organization (NPO), an affiliate of United Nurses of America (UNA). UNA is the nursing wing of AFSCME, which represents more than 350,000 hospital and health care workers, including over 40,000 nurses nationwide.
Today's action in Louisville came in the form of an NLRB petition for injunctive relief for the nurses and their union filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. The Board takes this action -- a so-called 10(j) injunction -- in only about 3 percent of all cases when they issue complaints. If granted by the court, the injunction would require Columbia to bargain with the union. The NLRB also wants Columbia to be required to rescind its total overhaul of Audubon nurse positions and their duties, which accelerated in December 1995.
"This remedy represents a victory for common sense in the workplace. In fact, the law should impose this remedy automatically," asserted McEntee. "Employees need to be protected from management threats and coercion and be free to vote on union representation without thinking that the employer will retaliate, that they'll lose their job or their shift schedule, or the facility will be shut down."
"The union held a clear uncoerced majority of authorization cards prior to the company's campaign of terror. The court should give this evidence of majority support for the union greater weight than the coerced results in the vote itself. As for a re-vote, we've been unlawfully prevented for two years from going to the bargaining table. There's no way to restore 'laboratory conditions' as if there had been no illegal activity, and it's clear that the company would simply resume its intimidation."
McEntee also called it noteworthy that the NLRB complaint cites David Vanderwater, Chief Operating Officer of Columbia/HCA, for unfair labor practices at the "flagship hospital" of the giant health care chain which has purchased all or part of 342 hospitals over an eight-year buying spree. Last year, Columbia was the nation's 10th largest private sector employer and reported $17 billion in revenue, nearly triple that of software giant Microsoft Corp.
The NLRB petition alleges violations of Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act, which prohibits employers from attempting to interfere with, or coerce, employees in the exercise of their right to organize. Specifically, the NLRB alleges that just before the election Columbia timed an announcement of intended benefit improvements and a 60-cent-an-hour wage increase, following no general wage increase for several years.
Columbia hired a consulting firm -- Management Science Associates (MSA), of Independence, MO -- to help block the union. Top executives were deployed to talk to the nurses, including Vanderwater who told nurses that Audubon would not negotiate with a union no matter what. Management also employed unlawful threats of job loss, loss of benefits, and closure or sale of the facility.
In December 1995, hospital officials announced that all current nursing positions ceased to exist and that they were beginning a major nursing "restructuring" program to reduce the number of licensed nurses providing patient care at Audubon. NPO projects Audubon will eliminate 37.8 percent, or 240 of the approximately 650 RNs in the bargaining unit, and replace them with less skilled and unlicensed personnel.
"Patients' lives are at risk when cost-cutting means cutting corners at the bedside," said NPO President Patty Clark, a nurse for 19 years employed in an Audubon medical-surgical unit. "There simply aren't enough licensed personnel at the bedside and in our experience quality of care has definitely deteriorated."
"Nurses are patient advocates," stated Clark, "and we will not yield our moral responsibility to the pressures of those who put profits ahead of patients." Clark points out that without the protection afforded by union representation and a contract, the employer silences nurses by threatening their jobs. "We must have qualified, experienced nurses at the bedside and respiratory therapists and phlebotomists who have expertise in their fields, to give patients good quality care."
The 10(j) petition filed in district court by the Cincinnati regional office of the NLRB was authorized by the full Labor Board earlier this week following review of allegations presented by its General Counsel, Fred Feinstein. The NLRB is also asking the court to approve a motion to consider the petition based upon hearing transcripts and exhibits from the board hearings before the administrative law judge.
For Further Information, Contact:
Patty Clark, NPO President, 502/459-3393
