Resurrection Health Care settles charges with labor board PDF Print E-mail

Hospital chain agrees to inform employees of labor rights

Under the terms of a settlement finalized last week between the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Regional Office and Resurrection Health Care (RHC), the hospital chain will have to inform its employees that they have the right to express support for labor unions.

The settlement came in the wake of a complaint issued by Region 13 of the NLRB alleging that RHC hospitals had violated their employees’ rights under federal labor law. The Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges were filed by AFSCME Council 31 on behalf of employees who are seeking to form a union at RHC hospitals.

Resurrection is the largest Catholic health care network in Illinois—with eight hospitals, as well as outpatient clinics and nursing homes, located in the Chicago metropolitan area.

The incidents that led to the unfair labor practice charges included: 1) Resurrection managers barring employees from handing out union materials; 2) Management interrogation of union activists; 3) Resurrection security personnel threatening an off-duty employee because she was wearing a union T-shirt.

“We believe that Resurrection’s actions in each instance were clearly intended to have a chilling effect on employees who support the formation of a union at Resurrection hospitals,” said Council 31 chief legal counsel, Tom Edstrom.

In a formal complaint issued on July 31st, the NLRB alleged that Resurrection violated federal labor law in the first of these instances by “interfering with, and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7 of the [National Labor Relations] Act...”

Resurrection repeatedly sought to delay a hearing on the charge. After its legal maneuvers failed and faced with the two additional ULP charges that had been filed, Resurrection agreed to settle the cases with the NLRB Regional Office.

Under the terms of the settlement, Resurrection Health Care will have to post notices at the hospitals where the incidents occurred informing employees that it will not engage in behavior that would interfere with the rights guaranteed them under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

“Resurrection management has infringed upon our rights to free speech and freedom to organize,” said Shirley Brown, one of the complainants and an employee at Westlake Hospital. “They claim they don’t interfere with our right to organize—but these incidents make very clear that they do.”
 
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