Washington, DC (February 16, 2010) \u2013 After a protracted legal battle, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel has sustained part of an appeal filed by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys challenging a backroom unionization deal between Tenet Healthcare Corporation and the California Nurses Association (CNA) union. <\/p>\n
As part of their efforts to forcibly unionize hospital employees across the country, CNA officials and Tenet Corporation agreed to a series of measures designed to impose union monopoly bargaining on unwilling nurses. This so-called Election Procedures Agreement (EPA) gave union organizers preferential access to Tenet facilities and gagged nurses who opposed unionization.<\/p>\n
The agreement between Tenet and the CNA also subverted the NLRB\u2019s oversight role during workplace elections. Under the CNA union\u2019s scheme, the NLRB\u2019s only role is to count ballots and rubber-stamp the union\u2019s monopoly bargaining privileges, effectively gutting the already limited rights of employees who wish to resist unionization. <\/p>\n
With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, nurses in Houston and Philadelphia have repeatedly challenged the legality of this arrangement. In earlier proceedings, Tenet was forced to give nurses who opposed forced unionism equal access to hospital facilities. <\/p>\n
A recent appeal filed by Foundation attorneys challenging the EPA was partly sustained by the NLRB\u2019s General Counsel. The General Counsel agreed with Foundation attorneys that a provision of the EPA committing Tenet to binding arbitration if union officials and the company are unable to agree on a first contract constitutes illegal pre-recognition bargaining between the union and the company, allowing union officials to negotiate substantive terms of employment for workers they don\u2019t even represent. The legality of this provision will now be litigated before an administrative law judge and ultimately the federal courts. <\/p>\n
\u201cCNA bosses shouldn\u2019t be empowered to negotiate on behalf of workers they don\u2019t even represent,\u201d said Patrick Semmens, legal information director of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cTenet Corporation and CNA operatives have stacked the deck in favor of union organizers, stifling independent-minded employees in an attempt to push Houston and Philadelphia nurses under union boss control, like it or not.\u201d
\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington, DC (February 16, 2010) \u2013 After a protracted legal battle, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel has sustained part of an appeal filed by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys challenging a backroom unionization deal between Tenet Healthcare Corporation and the California Nurses Association (CNA) union. <\/p>\n
As part of their efforts to forcibly unionize hospital employees across the country, CNA officials and Tenet Corporation agreed to a series of measures designed to impose union monopoly bargaining on unwilling nurses. This so-called Election Procedures Agreement (EPA) gave union organizers preferential access to Tenet facilities and gagged nurses who opposed unionization.<\/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-2861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n