Research Medical Center nurse files charges of unfair labor practices
By RANDOLPH HEASTER | The Kansas City Star
August 16, 2010
Helped by a national group critical of organized labor, a Research Medical Center nurse has challenged an alleged cooperative agreement between the hospital and union organizers.
Last week, the nurse, Mary Hill, filed complaints with the local office of the National Labor Relations Board against Research, parent company HCA Inc. and two unions: National Nurses United and SEIU Healthcare Missouri/Kansas.
Hill filed her unfair labor practice charges with the help of the National Right to Work Foundation, which is based in Springfield, Va., and says it provides legal aid to employees affected by the “abuses of compulsory unionism.”
According to Hill’s complaints, HCA signed a “secret neutrality agreement” with organizers of both unions, giving them employee lists and special access to the work force to discuss union matters.
In addition, the complaints allege that the agreement prohibits hospital managers from discussing union issues with the work force. Management also is refusing to provide facilities access to employees opposed to the organizing, according to Hill’s complaints.
The organizing campaign has been going on for about a month, said Anthony Riedel, a National Right to Work spokesman.
“The details of the pact are secret, but we believe it’s similar to a nurses union campaign in Texas,” Riedel said. “There, organizers are getting cards signed so the union can get a ‘quickie election’ before anybody knows what’s going on.”
Read the rest @ KansasCity.com.
I am an employee at Research Medical Center, and have been “forced” into membership into the SEIU after some very subversive and sneaky organizational tactics in our hospital locations. Not only was the initial vote hardly publicized at all to staff (the result was a small turnout and what the SEIU later deemed a “landslide victory”), our entire department was, and continues to be, noticeably skipped and ignored when requests for information are submitted to their union reps on site here. After an interesting conversation with an on-site SEIU organizer this past week, I am left with nothing but contempt and mistrust of this organization. In summary, I was told that the SEIU didn’t have to explain itself or its worth to ANYONE – even dues-paying members, and that I need to “jump on board” or I would be considered “part of the problem”. An attempt to coerce and/or intimidate me? Absolutley. I was also told that it didn’t really matter if I or others had any concerns or questions…..regardless, we have no choice but to pay our union dues. Missouri is not a “right to work” state, so she is correct on the paying dues issue. In a very personal attack from the SEIU rep, I was told I was an anti-union, Republican racist. She apparently was able to discern this from simple questions that I was attempting to have answered. I can only hope that my fellow employees will eventually realize they were fed a “pie in the sky” rosy picture of how union life would be under this scandalous, dishonest “union”, and vote to decertify. Shame on the SEIU for targeting certain segments of our staff who they deemed to be easily influenced and buyable with free lunches, t-shirts, and promises of a better life under their wing.