Union group distributes report

A group calling itself The Fresno Fair Election Commission has widely distributed a report to media containing allegations of mistreatment of employees attempting to unionize at Community Medical Centers. The report was handed out at a March 13 evening meeting, attended by about 120 union workers, local peace and labor activists, community members and some health care employees. But it has yet to be formally delivered to the hospital network’s administration.

The booklet repeats previous union claims, including employee complaints about mandatory department meetings and requests to follow Community’s non-solicitation policies. The National Labor Relations Board has yet to rule on the validity of the claims against Community, filed by an attorney for the Service Employees International Union. SEIU has been working for nearly two years to get Community employees to sign a petition asking for a union election.

At the March 13 meeting, commission members called for Community to commit to a “fair election agreement.”

Fresno City Councilman Jerry Duncan

In a Feb. 12 memo to Community’s 6,000 employees, chief executive officer Tim Joslin outlined his thoughts on such an agreement. He stated that Community respects and adheres to the National Labor Relations Act outlining the free-speech rights of unions and employers and feels additional rules are not needed. The “fair-election” points being proposed have been used repeatedly by SEIU in almost identical fashion in other West Coast hospitals, Joslin said.

Fresno City Councilman Jerry Duncan urged local politicians and the community to disregard the commission, its claims and the demands on Community. “The Fresno Fair Election Commission is nothing more than a group of SEIU supporters who wrote this biased report with the intention of damaging the integrity of Community, an outstanding institution,” Duncan wrote in a press release distributed to media this week.

“They are attempting to force on Community’s management the SEIU’s version of an agreement that, among other things, severely restricts the rights of a private business to communicate to their employees during any union election process,” Duncan stated. “SEIU clearly believes that when employees they are attempting to organize may reject their efforts, as is the case with workers at Community, the only way the union can succeed is to give themselves an unfair advantage by writing their own election rules and by vilifying the company.”

Duncan called upon the local leaders to support Community, the region’s largest safety-net provider of health care and the region’s largest private employer.

Although Community prefers to work directly with its employees, Joslin said, Community has demonstrated its ability to work collaboratively with unions in several areas. He pointed to the cooperative relationship with the Stationary Engineers, which represents some employees, and to the $350 million Community Regional Medical Center expansion, done with one of the region’s the most open and comprehensive Project Labor Agreements – an agreement that favors unionized workers.

“Our board and I believe that maintaining a direct relationship with our employees and working out our issues together is in the best interest of Community, our patients, and our employees,” Joslin said. "We want the opportunity to demonstrate what we can accomplish without third-party intervention."

This story was reported by Erin Kennedy and Eddie Hughes. They can be reached at ekennedy@communitymedical.org and eddieh@communitymedical.org.

Friday, March 14, 2008