NHI: "Union Election Off; Arbitrator Says Hospital Broke Law"

Yale-New Haven Hospital's "serious violations of federal labor law" have led the neutral arbitrator policing the conduct agreement to call off the elections scheduled for next week. Holy fuck.

one hospital supervisor, Judy Grant, who oversees 165 employees, summoned a group of them to a mandatory meeting, on work time, about matters unrelated to the union. After 15 minutes, she told workers they were "free to stay or leave." She then spent 45 minutes trashing the union, saying, among other things, that workers stood to lose a $1.75 per hour pay differential if the union wins, that their union dues would go up, and that unionized workers at a nursing home in town lost their jobs after they voted in a union.

Such meetings took place throughout the hospital the past few weeks. Organizers argued they were mandatory, not voluntary, because workers would be targeted as pro-union if they stood up to leave. Arbitrator Kern agreed. She also agreed that Grant's claims about the union, echoed by other managers in what appeared to be a coordinated hospital-wide campaign, were false and constituted threats. She called the practice a violation of not just the hospital's agreement with the union, but federal law as well.

"The employer thus put employees in the position of having either to accept or reject the employer's proffer of listening to an anti-union presentation, thereby pressuring them to make an observable choice regarding their sentiments about the union. The Board and courts have found this type of subtle pressure to constitute unlawful polling."

What happens now? It looks like John Destefano is justifiably furious.

"I am incredibly disappointed in the management of the hospital, and I'm saddened by the potential consequences this is going to have," DeStefano said. "They have poisoned the water as to whether there can ever be a free and fair election because of their intimidation and coercion."

The city can't stop the cancer center at this point. But, at least Wednesday night, it sounded like the hospital may face renewed political trouble.

"It's time for the elected officials of New Haven and the state of Connecticut to look at the governance structure of this hospital," DeStefano declared. "It enjoys substantial tax benefits that other hospitals in other states do not enjoy." He cited property tax and income-tax exemptions.

Yale-New Haven Hospital workers have the right to ORGANIZE FREE FROM HARASSMENT AND INTIMIDATION. The hospital's continuing attempts to deny workers that right no matter how much suffering it causes to their patients and their employees is not acceptable. It has never been acceptable. It will never be acceptable. Yale-New Haven Hospital workers need a fair process to decide whether they want a union.

UPDATE: The arbitrator, according to the New Haven Register, gave the union permission to seek a postponement of th election because the hospital had jeopardized the possibility of a "free and fair election." It's unclear from the register article whether the hospital is now compelled to do anything further. At the hearing, the hospital apparently "objected to the idea of a postponement," but the article claims that Petrini is saying that YNHH will reconsider "in light of the ruling."

She said it appears that the hospital gave permission to over 200 managers and supervisors to conduct mandatory meetings on work time to discuss the union with employees, which constitutes "unlawful polling," a violation of federal law.

Kern found workers were threatened with loss of pay and benefits, and possibly their jobs, if they unionized, and said information spread about union dues was false, and the employer knew it was false.