OUR VIEW HOSPITAL UNION
Nurse union sinks effort at peaceful vote
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Three's a crowd when it comes to the attempt to settle a long running dispute between Springfield Regional Medical Center and a union that has waged a struggle to represent its workers.
An unusual deal to settle the question appeared to have been reached between the hospital and the Service Employees International Union to hold a non-contentious vote on unionization.
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The California Nurses Union, no friend of the SEIU, had other ideas. It entered the process at the last minute bearing a monkey wrench.
The vote set here for Wednesday, March 12, was called off after the rival union sent representatives into the hospitals here to talk to workers. That poisoned the effort to skip the usual histrionics that too often mark such votes. The idea was to let local workers decide without a lot of pressure from either side.
The nurse's union arrived saying the SEIU would be the hospital's poodle in negotiations if it won the right to negotiate.
The California union claims the vote agreement was the result of collusion.
A deal to negotiate a weak contract in exchange for allowing the SEIU to represent workers would be illegal.
If the nurses union has proof of such a deal, it should come forward with it.
On the surface, the SEIU doesn't appear to be Milquetoast in its relations with management.
It has waged a three-year, angry battle here and elsewhere at Ohio hospitals that are part of the Catholic Healthcare Partners system. There was no love lost between the union and the hospital.
Elsewhere, the SEIU has called on nurses to strike for a contracts, a decidedly unpoodle-like behavior.
One of the main reasons that the hospital decided to allow a representation vote is the pressure brought by the SEIU, the AFL-CIO and other unions on Catholic bishops to make Catholic Healthcare Partners stop fighting unionization efforts, according to a New York Times report.
The consolidation of Community Hospital and Mercy Medical Center has left many hospital workers confused, angry and fearful. Some complain that health care here has suffered as the hospital has tried to stem the flow of red ink.
It may be fertile ground for a union.
If workers really want to unionize, their desire has been at least postponed.
