Community RNs petition to remove union
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| Community Health Center – Cedar, formerly known as University Medical Center. |
The National Labor Relations Board alerted Community Medical Centers that RNs at the former University Medical Center campus filed a decertification petition asking for a vote to remove the union.
This is the second attempt by RNs at that facility to oust CNA. In 2005, some UMC nurses filed a decertification petition that never moved forward to a vote because of procedural delays. During those delays, UMC acute-care services were moved to the downtown Community Regional Medical Center in April 2007.
Tim Joslin, Community’s chief executive officer, said on March 12 he supported nurses’ rights to freely make decisions about union representation without any interference.
“We believe that we can achieve more through collaboration rather than confrontation,” Joslin said. “We want the opportunity to demonstrate what we can accomplish without third party intervention. We face many challenges in the future and are truly committed to communicating openly and working with our employees to meet these challenges and to bring about positive changes for our organization and for the patients we serve.”
If the NLRB determines that a sufficient number of RNs signed the decertification request, then it will set an election for employees to vote on the matter. A simple majority of those in the bargaining unit who vote determine if CNA is removed. A decertification petition can be filed when 30% or more of the employees represented by the union request a decertification election.
“We would hope that CNA recognizes our RNs right to a prompt election,” Joslin said.
In the 2005 decertification attempt, the union filed dozens of unfair labor practice allegations resulting in the election being held up by investigations. All of those CNA allegations against Community were dismissed – except for claims that Community increased salaries and improved benefits without sufficient notice to the union. UMC nurses had been given the same compensation enhancements in 2004 and 2005 as nurses at other Community facilities.
CNA currently represents 20 nurses at the Cedar campus. When Community Medical Centers took over Valley Medical Center from Fresno County and renamed it UMC, it entered protracted legal wrangling over whether it also was obligated to take over the county’s union agreements at that facility.
A judge ordered Community to recognize and bargain with CNA in regards to 280 nurses at then UMC. After April’s transition of acute-care services from UMC to Community Regional, the bargaining unit was reduced to 20 nurses in clinics and skilled nursing still at that facility, which was renamed again.
In July, Community reached a court-approved agreement with CNA on more than 20 points. But after more than three years of talks – sometimes with guidance from a federal mediator – there was still no agreement over the union’s demands on salaries and mandatory union-shop fees for all RNs. Community and CNA were still negotiating over remaining contract issues when RNs filed their decertification petition to remove the union.
This story was reported by Erin Kennedy. She can be reached at ekennedy@communitymedical.org.