Local 1199/SEIU and Yale New Haven Hospital have been locked in a ten-year battle over the unionization of the hospital’s 1,800 service workers. The neutral arbitrator chosen by both sides to settle any disputes arising from the parties’ historic election conduct agreement of April, 2006 ruled last week (Oct. 23) that the hospital must pay a $4.5 million fine for egregious violations of that agreement, and half the money will go directly to the workers. But the ruling also contained some bad news for the organizing effort. Melinda Tuhus reports from New Haven, Connecticut.

"In her Final Report on Remedies, issued October 23, arbitrator Margaret M. Kern wrote, 'The employees were victimized by the employer’s unfair labor practices, which were instigated by a team of consultants the hospital hired.' She ruled that Yale New Haven must pay the union $2.3 million reimbursement for its organizing expenses, and $2.2 million directly to the workers, which was the amount the hospital paid its outside consultants. That comes out to about $1,300 for each worker eligible for the bargaining unit. But she declined to grant the union’s request for a bargaining order."

The union and the hospital agreed 18 months ago to a “fair process” for deciding on union representation that went beyond the rules of the National Labor Relations Act. For example, it banned captive audience meetings for workers in which supervisors could bash the union.

But as the NLRB-supervised election scheduled for December 2006 drew near, the arbitrator determined that the hospital had violated the ban on captive audience meetings 98 times. The union withdrew its request for an election and asked the arbitrator to instead issue a bargaining order to bring in the union because more than half the eligible employees had signed union cards.

1199 activist, Willie Tart said union supporters were very disappointed in that part of Kern’s order. But Tart, who’s worked at the hospital for 32 years and joined the organizing drive at the start, a decade ago, said overall they are optimistic about the future.

"At YNHH, the administration has no credibility. All the employees know that. And also, tons of information has come out that would further expose the hospital in its effort to defeat the unionization of the hospital.""