Judge rules hospital violated labor law during unionization campaign

By Jean Reid Norman

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

A National Labor Relations Board judge has concluded that Boulder City Hospital violated federal labor law during efforts by the Teamsters Union Local 14 to organize workers.

The ruling, issued June 24, found that the hospital coercively questioned a nurse about his union activities, illegally told the nurse that the hospital would close if it were unionized and kept another nurse from working at the hospital because of his union activity.

The hospital has been ordered to reimburse the nurse who was denied shifts, cease the actions it found to be illegal and post a notice from the NLRB stating the ordered actions.

The hospital is reviewing the ruling and has until July 22 to decide whether to appeal, attorney Jim Winkler said. He declined further comment.

The ruling came six weeks after a May hearing during which nurses Dale Slover and Greg Ostrowski, as well as several hospital officials, testified about the allegations.

Slover told the judge that on Oct. 1, Human Resources Director Carol Davenport called him into her office and asked if he was aware of union activity. She also said an employee told her he had asked the employee to sign a union card. Slover denied it, because he had not told hospital officials of his union support yet, he said.

In November, Slover said, Acute Care Manager Andre Pastian told him the hospital could close if the union came in.

The NLRB judge said he found Slover’s testimony credible. The questioning amounted to coercion, the judge wrote.

He also found that the hospital illegally kept nurse Greg Ostrowski off the work schedule from November through March. Ostrowski had quit his full-time position but had been kept on as a per diem employee. He was not given shifts, however, after hospital Chief Executive Officer Thomas Maher told managers he did not want Ostrowski working at the hospital because of his union activities, the judge wrote.

The judge also found that the hospital was not wrong in posting a notice advising employees of its harassment policy or in not giving Ostrowski his former shifts once a replacement was hired.

“It’s not over yet,” Teamsters Local 14 representative Larry Griffith said. “It’s a long battle.”

Griffith said the union has enough signatures to force a vote, but he wants to ensure the hospital stops its unfair labor practices before one is scheduled.

“It’s about getting a fair election,” he said. “With unfair practices and threats and intimidation, we can’t get a fair election.”

He noted the hospital has posted in its employee area a letter from Maher defending the hospital’s position but has not posted the NLRB-ordered note.

The letter says the hospital acknowledged it erred with Ostrowski, but officials are considering whether to appeal the two issues that Slover testified about.

“We sincerely believe that bringing in a union to this facility is not in your best interests,” the letter reads. “We firmly believe, that upon reviewing all the facts, you will decide against union representation.”