New Jersey Health Care Workers Beat Back Anti-Union NLRB Rulings

It’s not often that a union successfully blocks the impact of an anti-union National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling. But our union, the Health Professionals and Allied Employees/AFT (HPAE), recently did just that through a combination of legal research, membership education and involvement, savvy public outreach, and coordinated bargaining among our local unions.

In October 2006, the NLRB issued three decisions collectively known as “Kentucky River” (based on a Supreme Court decision of that name). These rulings gave employers another tool to bust unions by expanding the definition of who is considered a supervisor and thus exempt from federal labor law protections.

The nonprofit Economic Policy Institute estimated that as many as eight million workers could lose their federal labor law rights as a result of Kentucky Rivers. Health care employers, in particular, could use the board’s rulings to try to remove “charge nurses” and other lead staff from bargaining units, and thus severely weaken health care unions. In most hospitals, at least a third of all registered nurses perform charge nurse duties on a fairly regular basis.

While a bill, the RESPECT Act, has been introduced in Congress to reverse the board’s rulings, health care employers are already using these rulings to stall organizing drives and weaken existing bargaining units.

ADVANCE PREPARATION

HPAE decided to confront the issue even before the NLRB ruled on the matter. Thanks to our organizing director, Larry Lipschultz, who closely monitors board decisions, we knew as far back as 2005 that the board was likely to issue an anti-union decision and we resolved to take a proactive approach

That year, we began preparing for 2006 contract negotiations, involving 10,000 HPAE members and 13 locals. A state federation of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), HPAE is the largest union of health care professionals in New Jersey. Most of our 12,000 members work in acute-care hospitals throughout the state.

Sixty-five percent of our members are registered nurses, but we have significant numbers of professional, technical, and service employees in the membership. On just one date alone, May 31, 2006, individual contracts were expiring at nine hospitals.

Our first step was to identify contract language that would prevent employers from using any Kentucky River rulings to take members out of our bargaining units and weaken the union. With the assistance of AFT legal staff, who in turn collaborated with AFL-CIO counsel, we developed “model language” for our upcoming negotiations.

This language included three components: a waiver by the employer of using any rights they might have to claim that members of the bargaining unit are supervisors; an agreement that members of the bargaining unit are only performing work that is non-supervisory in nature; and a prohibition on supervisors doing bargaining unit work.

Developing protective language was relatively easy. The bigger challenge was to build a consensus among our leaders and activists that Kentucky River was a priority, “strike” issue and then to win this protective language in what we knew would be tough negotiations.

BUILDING CONSENSUS

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From Fall 2005 to the early part of 2006, before bargaining started, we built that consensus through a series of meetings and leadership conferences. In these forums, as well as in one-on-one discussions, we explained in detail the devastating impact the Kentucky River rulings would likely have on our local unions. Once our local officers and reps saw how Kentucky River could be used to bust their unions, the issue was transformed from a technical, legal matter to a “do or die” issue for all of us.

We broadened the consensus by discussing Kentucky River with HPAE members at local and unit meetings. HPAE’s state-wide newsletter and each local union newsletter ran articles on the issue. Our members got it: they applied the old union motto that an “injury to one is an injury to all” and saw Kentucky River as a threat to their union.

That consensus was solidified when the leaders of each local union involved in negotiations pledged to each other that they would not settle their contract unless they got language to protect against Kentucky River. Kentucky River thus became a priority bargaining issue for all of our locals and a source of solidarity within HPAE.

BUILDING BROAD SUPPORT

While we prepared for negotiations, we recognized that we needed support from the public and political leaders to win our fight on this as well as other key issues: hospital staffing, improved pensions, and a new retiree health plan. We framed Kentucky River not as a matter of holding on to current members, but as a threat to health care workers’ ability to speak up for their patients and their professions once they lacked the protection of a union.

That message resonated. At legislative breakfasts, where our local leaders and members met with key politicians to discuss our contract issues, we linked Kentucky River to the need to protect quality patient care. We found that once they understood the issue, most politicians were very supportive.

During the contract campaign, we also used newspaper and bus ads, as well as billboards, to get across our message that HPAE’s fight for decent staffing, pension benefits, and protective language on Kentucky River was part of the fight for quality health care.

MEMBER PARTICIPATION

Our member-driven public outreach campaign was just one piece of our overall membership mobilization for the 2006 negotiation. At each hospital, our local unions organized rallies, “button days,” leafleting, and other activities to demonstrate members’ support for their negotiations committee and our contract demands. Building on previous internal organizing efforts, these mobilizations generally involved significant numbers of members.

Statewide, we organized a unity rally a week before the May 31 contract expiration date. The rally was an enthusiastic celebration of solidarity as we entered the final stage of negotiations.

After these membership activities showed employers that Kentucky River was a strike issue for us, two hospitals gave us indications that they could agree to our protective Kentucky River language as part of an overall contract settlement. Once we got tentative agreements from those hospitals as the contract deadline neared, we were able to pressure the remaining hospitals to accept the “pattern” settlements. In the end, to avoid a strike, even the most recalcitrant hospitals finally agreed to the language that we needed.

Of course, the challenges we face from an anti-union President and labor board will continue, but, at least on this issue, we have taken one union-busting tool away from our employers.

Mike Slott is the education director, Health Professionals and Allied Employees/AFT.