**Santa Ana, CA (July 6, 2006)** \u2013 A Western Medical Center nurse has filed class action unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against his employer and the California Nurses Association (CNA) union to stop an illegal scheme designed to push unwanted unionization on him and his fellow registered nurses. <\/p>\n
Sherwood Cox filed the charges at the NLRB Region 21 office in Los Angeles, against the CNA union and Western Medical Center in Santa Ana with assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.<\/p>\n
Cox\u2019s charges seek to protect the nurses\u2019 right to choose freely whether or not to unionize. The charges detail how CNA union officials illegally bargained with the nurses\u2019 employer over their wages and working conditions despite the fact that the nurses have not chosen to unionize. Included with Cox\u2019s charges is a copy of a 26-page \u201cneutrality agreement\u201d negotiated by union officials with the medical center that describes how the employer will assist the union in organizing the medical center\u2019s registered nurses, and it details specific collective bargaining concessions, including terms for wages and health benefits, that the medical center will receive in exchange.<\/p>\n
The traditional process requires that the NLRB hold a secret ballot election to determine if a majority of workers support unionization, but the pact \u2013 misleadingly dubbed the \u201cElection Procedures Agreement\u201d \u2013 outlines a system by which union officials can organize the nurses without even demonstrating true majority support. With monopoly bargaining status, union officials could then force all the nurses to pay dues to the union just to keep their jobs. Union officials hold this power because California is one of 28 states that has not yet passed a Right to Work law, which would mandate that union membership and dues payment are strictly optional.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnion officials have violated long standing Supreme Court and NLRB precedent in their push to sweep these nurses into their forced dues-paying ranks,\u201d said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cInstead of allowing employees to exercise free choice in deciding if they want a union to represent them, CNA officials are determined to push unionization on these nurses from the top down \u2013 like it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the Supreme Court\u2019s International Ladies Garment Workers v. NLRB decision, a union cannot become the monopoly bargaining representative of workers without the support of a majority of all employees. Furthermore, in the NLRB\u2019s Majestic Weaving Co. decision, the board recognized that allowing union officials to engage in pre-recognition bargaining with an employer is a violation of worker rights.<\/p>\n
The NLRB Region 21 Director will now investigate the charges and decide whether to issue a formal complaint and prosecute the CNA union and the Medical Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
**Santa Ana, CA (July 6, 2006)** \u2013 A Western Medical Center nurse has filed class action unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against his employer and the California Nurses Association (CNA) union to stop an illegal scheme designed to push unwanted unionization on him and his fellow registered nurses. Sherwood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n