October 24, 2006
Many Ohio RNs recently received a
mailing about joining the California Nurses Association (CNA) and
documenting "the conditions that exist in your hospitals." The mailing
attacked the American Nurses Association and focused very little on
patient care. OHA staff spoke with several nurses who were not
supportive of the mailing and the association is developing talking
points for hospitals.
CNA mailing
CNA brochure
Talking Points
September 20, 2006
Ohio Board of Nursing receives letters from
NNOC
The
National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), the organizing arm of the
California Nurses Association, is continuing its attack on the Ohio Board of
Nursing through a small letter-writing campaign asking the board to adopt an
administrative rule. The proposal relates to the role of registered nurses
as having “independent professional responsibility and therefore the right
to act as patient advocates." This action a presentation NNOC gave at its
May meeting when NNOC made a similar request. The board included 10 NNOC
letters with its packet for its upcoming September meeting, of which only
five were signed.
September 11, 2006
SEIU Releases Latest
Report
SEIU District 1199
releases "Freedom & Fairness for Hospital Employees"
July 26, 2006
Jury Award Stings Union
UNITE Here hit with $17.2 million
decision in Sutter defamation suit.
A Placer Superior Court jury has
awarded the Sutter Health hospital chain $17.2 million in compensatory
damages in a defamation suit against a labor union that accused the
hospital of using soiled linens in its maternity wards.
July 18, 2006
July
18, 2006
Union Concessions
Critical at Forum, CEO Says
Dayton Business Journal
Thursday July 13, 2006
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio --
Despite the recent progress in returning Forum Health to profitability,
its chief executive insists employee contract concessions are still
crucial.
http://www.business-journal.com/UnionConcessionsCriticalForum.asp
July
18, 2006
NLRB sides with
hospital over ban on union buttons
The National Labor Relations Board on
June 30
reversed
an administrative law judge’s findings
and dismissed a complaint alleging Sacred Heart Medical Center in
Spokane, WA, violated the National Labor Relations Act by
prohibiting employees from wearing a union button stating “RNs
demand safe staffing” in areas of the hospital where they might
encounter patients or their families. Contrary to the judge, they
found that “special circumstances” justified the restriction, namely
that the message would inherently disturb patients and that the
nurses’ direct supervisors expressed concern over the impact the
button may have on patients.
July 3, 2006
Labor Unions’ Next
Target: Wage and Hour Practices
With labor unions delving into hospital wage and hour practices in
Ohio and nationwide, OHA encourages hospitals to review their processes
and ensure they are in compliance with wage and hour regulations. OHA
created a white paper with an explanation of the basics of federal and
Ohio compensation law, wage and hour problems common in the health care
industry and a checklist for use as a preliminary wage and hour
self-audit. Vulnerabilities in the health care industry include:
establishing the “regular rate” of pay, correctly applying the “eight
and eighty” system, determining hours worked and determining exemption
for nurses.
View OHA White Paper: Wage and Hour Review
View Cincinnati Enquirer article: Hospital workers sue for back pay
June 20, 2006
Modern Healthcare
Nurses
sue hospitals, allege antitrust violations
Class-action lawsuits have been
filed against hospitals in Chicago, Memphis, Tenn., Albany, N.Y., and
San Antonio alleging that the hospitals conspired to depress nurses'
wages. The lawsuits claim that the hospitals deliberately and
systematically exchanged nonpublic information about the wages each was
paying its nurses through phone calls and written surveys. The lawsuits
were filed after counsel for the plaintiffs reviewed an investigation by
the Service Employees International Union and determined that these
types of activities constituted a violation of federal antitrust laws.
To see the class-action complaints, visit
www.cmht.com/cases_nursewages.php.
June
15, 2006
Lawsuit filed against HHS for inadequate nurse staffing in hospitals
The American Nurses Association (ANA), the New York State Nurses Association
(NYSNA) and the Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA) filed a
lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) today to remedy violations of law that require minimum
standards for participation in the federal Medicare program. Specifically,
the groups claim that HHS allows hospitals that fail to meet federal nurse
staffing requirements to participate in Medicare, thereby endangering
patients.
June 1, 2006
Illinois
groups respond to report on tax-exempt hospitals
The
Illinois Hospital Association and Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare
Council today
criticized
the motives and methodology of a new report by the Center
for Tax and Budget Accountability that attempts to estimate the
tax-exempt value of 21 hospitals and health systems in Cook County, IL,
and compare those estimates with the cost of the charity care they
provide. “This is a politically motivated report bought and paid for by
SEIU, which is engaged in a campaign to discredit hospitals as it tries
to organize hospital workers,” said IHA President Ken Robbins. Even with
its flaws, the
report “clearly shows hospitals provide benefits to the communities
they serve that far exceed the value of their tax exemptions,” the
groups note. According to the report, the aggregate value of the
hospitals’ community benefits amount to $1.59 billion, or more than five
times the value of their tax exemptions.
May 5, 2006
ANA Asks Court to Accept AMICUS Brief in Support of WSNA
The American Nurses Association
(ANA), in an article on their website, indicated a request to the United
States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, to accept its amicus brief in
support of the Washington State Nurses Association in its dispute with
an area hospital over a requirement that all employees receive a
mandatory influenza vaccination or be fired. The brief took the position
that the hospital’s unilateral implementation of that requirement is a
violation of the nurses’ collective bargaining agreement.
http://nursingworld.org/pressrel/2006/PRWSNA050306.htm
April 24, 2006
New Haven Hospital, Service Employees International Union Reach Agreement
Modern Healthcare
NEW
HAVEN, Conn.
-- New Haven officials, Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Service
Employees International Union last month reached an agreement that
clears the way for construction of a new cancer center. The agreement
governs the leasing and eventual transfer of property needed for the
site; outlines community benefits and a voluntary payment by the
hospital to the city; and also includes an agreement between the
hospital and Local 1199 for a secret-ballot election supervised by the
National Labor Relations Board. Other agreement highlights include a
$1.2 million commitment by the hospital for investment in housing and
economic development in adjacent neighborhoods for a four-year period
beginning October 2007. Dissention between the hospital and union had
stalled development of the $430 million cancer center, touted as the
largest healthcare project in state history.
March 24, 2006
Nurse-Ratio Fight Goes National
The recent implementation of California's nurse-to-patient
ratio law is prompting nursing advocates to support similar mandatory
staffing legislation in other states, an
article in Modern Healthcare reports. Since the
implementation of the California nurse ratio law last year, members of
the California Nurses Association (CNA) and the National Nurses
Organizing Committee, the CNA's national organizing arm, have been
working with Illinois nursing leaders to pass staffing regulations as
part of the association's "first push to spread California's ratio
standards east." Similar legislation has also been introduced in
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Kansas.
March 9, 2006
SEIU launches nurse union, calls for higher wages to address nurse
shortage
The Service Employees International Union recently launched a new nurses
union that will advocate for federal and state staffing legislation,
higher wages and changes in working conditions to alleviate the nation’s
growing shortage of nurses. The new SEIU Nurse Alliance brings 84,000
SEIU nurses in 23 states into a separate organization with a dedicated
staff and annual budget this year of $6 million, officials said during a
teleconference with reporters. The union announced a “Value Care, Value
Nurses” initiative in 12 states that will seek to partner with hospital
executives, non-unionized nurses and others on solutions to the nursing
crisis. It also released an SEIU-funded
report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
Feb. 22, 2006
Eight unions to team up on nurse organizing efforts
In a push to increase healthcare
organizing, eight unions in the AFL-CIO will pool organizing
funds and coordinate campaigns to recruit registered nurses. The
unions previously focused on joint lobbying but not on joint
organizing efforts, said Ann Twomey, president of one of the
unions, the Health Professionals and Allied Employees/American
Federation of Teachers. The shift will particularly boost the
organizing and bargaining strength of unions with few nurses
among their rank-and-file, Twomey said. "It seemed to be the
right and logical choice, especially with all the challenges
facing not only labor, but healthcare," she said. Facing sharp
criticism over declining membership, the AFL-CIO at its July
convention vowed to boost spending for small AFL-CIO unions that
agree to pool resources to target an industry. The nurse union
alliance represents a combined 200,000 RNs. Source: Modern
Healthcare's Daily Dose
Feb. 18,
2006
St. Vincent, UAW win cooperation award
Toledo Blade
Officials
of St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center made no secret of their
opposition to unionization in 2000.||But yesterday an
executive shared a podium with officials of three UAW units
that were eventually installed there and praised the
relationship that has developed between the hospital and the
union.
www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060218/BUSINESS03/602180382/-1/BUSINESS
Feb. 1, 2006
Hospital Forced to Fire Nurses Who Refused Union
The United States Court of Appeals for the
Eighth Circuit recently upheld a lower court decision ordering St.
John’s Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis to discharge 14 nurses who
refused to pay dues or provide other financial support to the United
Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), pursuant to a union security
clause that was entered into between the union and the hospital. The
Medical Center made an unsuccessful argument to the Court that requiring
the Medical Center to discharge this number of nurses was inconsistent
with public policy and particularly burdensome given the nurse shortage
in the area. The decision, however, certainly does follow long
established precedent on this point and underscores the potential
ramifications of an employer and union entering into a union security
clause. (St. John’s Mercy Health
Sys. v. NLRB, 8th Cir. No. 05-2301)
Jan. 30, 2006
UAN and SEIU Announce Collaboration
An interesting announcement recently occurred from the United American
Nurses (a division of the American Nurses Association) and the Service
Employees International Union (SEIU). These two unions have indicated,
in a series of media releases, that they have plans to form a working
relationship on various mutually advantageous topics, including
collaborative efforts to organize health care workers. This is a
particularly interesting development given the fact that the United
American Nurses (UAN) remains part of the AFL-CIO and that the SEIU was
one of the prime movers in leading various unions to defect from the
Federation. Indeed, as you are well aware, Andy Stern, the President of
the SEIU, has been particularly critical of the AFL-CIO and was one of
the first to announce that his union would leave the Federation.
Perhaps contributing to this interesting event is the fact that the
California Nurses Association (CNA) and its affiliate, the National
Nurse Organizing Committee (NNOC), have indicated a desire to join the
AFL-CIO. The UAN, in turn, has indicated that it has reservations about
the CNA becoming part of the Federation, particularly if the CNA would
replace the UAN as the primary union to organize registered nurses
within the AFL-CIO.
It will also be particularly interesting
to see if the SEIU formally merges with any UAN state affiliates or
takes over any UAN local bargaining units, particularly in states where
the UAN affiliate is not very strong, either in number of members or in
financial resources. These developments also appear to be an effort to
stop the CNA from further raiding of UAN affiliates such as occurred
last year when the CNA affiliate, the NNOC, displaced the Illinois
Nurses Association as the bargaining representative of Cook County,
Illinois unionized nurses. Stay tuned to see what develops next in this
evolving story.
January 2006
U.S. Unions Act Globally, Benefit Locally
By creating
international agreements with European multinationals, groups are
gaining entry into American businesses that previously had fended off
organizing efforts.
http://www.workforce.com/section/09/feature/24/26/53/index.html
Jan. 31, 2006
Corporate Campaigns Could Deal Death Blows to Hospitals
After more than 30 years of union activity in health care organizations,
changing labor union tactics now threaten the viability of Ohio’s
hospitals, eating up vital time, resources and finances. Responding to
declining membership, organized labor embraced a new strategy for
exerting pressure on employers: the corporate campaign. The corporate
campaign represents a completely different strategy from traditional
union efforts to build membership by focusing recruitment efforts
directly on workers. Instead of targeting workers, the labor union
aggressively attacks the reputation of a target employer, undermining
public confidence and key stakeholder relationships until management
decides it must yield to the union’s demands or risk the company’s
financial well-being. Ultimately, the goal of the corporate campaign is
to pressure an employer into agreeing to a “neutrality agreement,”
requiring them to remain silent or neutral while the union organizes
employees.
Read more
Jan. 31, 2006
OHA Staffing Program Celebrates First Anniversary
OHA Solutions Staffing Program this week celebrates its one-year
anniversary. Since filling its initial order one year ago today, the
program has helped hospitals fill nearly 9,000 per diem shifts and
long-term/travel vacancies in both the nursing and allied health care
departments. Seventy-five Ohio hospitals currently take advantage of OHA
Solutions’ services, which draw from over 80 staffing companies.
Read more
Health benefits contract ratified
by 2 UT unions
Toledo Blade
Friday January 27, 2006
Members of two unions at the University of Toledo who previously threatened
to strike this week overwhelmingly ratified a two-year health contract with
the administration yesterday.
Read more
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