RN victory was biggest single hospital election in years
 
A hearing officer for the National Labor Relations Board this week recommended the labor board uphold the September vote by registered nurses at a major Los Angeles area hospital, branding hospital objections to the democratic vote as “without merit.”
 
In a hard fought election, the RNs at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance, Ca. voted 279 to 261 to join the to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United in what CNA called the biggest U.S. election win for non-union hospital registered nurses in seven years.
 
The vote, 279 to 261 in secret ballot voting conducted by the NLRB, with the nurses, says CNA, courageously withstanding a ferocious anti-union campaign by hospital management and its high paid anti-union consultants.
 
Not accepting the democratic results, the hospital then challenged the election in filings with the labor board. This week David Reed, a hearing officer for NLRB Region 31 in Los Angeles, said he found the hospital objections, based solely on text messages to one RN from a CNA representative urging her to vote, to be “without merit.”
 
Reed recommended the NLRB overrule the objections and certify CNA as the legal representative for the RNs in collective bargaining. The text messages, Reed ruled, were nothing more than “mild-mannered campaigning” and contained “nothing… that can be considered threatening, intimidating, coercive or promising a benefit.”
 
The election affects 725 RNs at the Torrance hospital, which is part of the Renton, Wa.-based Providence Health system.
 
Here's a quote from Sally Duy, RN, AOU (Acute Observation Unit), FBC member:
 
"My RN colleagues and I are very pleased with the decision,” said Sally Duy, a Little Company Torrance RN. “We have worked so hard to get unionized. We did so to have a voice for patient safety, recruitment and retention of experienced RNs.”
 
Duy called on management to accept the decision “and begin to negotiate with us as soon as possible. This has been a long time coming and we're so proud to have joined with the 185,OOO-member CNA-NNU, the premiere union for registered nurses across the country."
 
Ludy Chang, another Little Company Torrance said, "We look forward to the challenges ahead of us and working toward a fair union contract with management to ensure that the needs of the community and our fellow RN colleagues are met; and that our patients are provided with the best possible medical care. We're very proud to join CNA-NNU."
 
NNU is one of the fastest growing unions in the nation. Since the founding of NNU, the nation’s largest organization of nurses, in December 2009, over 16,000 RNs in 13 states have elected to join NNU affiliates.