Nurses Seeking to Sever Union Affiliation Withdraw Petition Due to Insufficient Signatures

One week after filing paperwork to sever ties with SEIU 1199NW, a group of Logan Health nurses opposed to the union withdrew its petition due to insufficient signatures while pledging to resubmit the request later.

Meanwhile, on the heels of a three-day unfair labor practice strike, negotiations between bargaining nurses, represented by SEIU, and hospital management showed little sign of nearing a contract, although the two sides tentatively agreed on a few “minor issues” when they met last week, according to union spokesperson Amy Clark.

The nurses seeking to break away from SEIU formed a group called Nurses and Community Unite (NACU). They accuse SEIU of being out of touch with local interests and engaging in divisiveness and bullying.

Nurses with NACU filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on June 1, saying they had secured signatures from 40% of the bargaining unit’s 650 nurses, more than the 30% required to hold a vote on whether to decertify the union.

But SEIU requested that the NLRB check signatures against hospital payroll to ensure all were eligible, which led to the board’s determination that the petition didn’t meet criteria. NACU withdrew its petition on June 8.

Shiela Stencel, one of NACU’s organizers, said enough signatures were deemed invalid to move the petition below the 30% threshold, due to reasons such as nurses who had either left Logan Health since signing or had been promoted to supervisor, disqualifying their signature, as well as repeat signatures.

Stencel said the signatures were submitted electronically and confidentially, so it wasn’t possible to check that all were valid before filing. She said the group chose to voluntarily withdraw the petition rather than challenge the NLRB’s findings but will continue collecting signatures with the plan to re-file.

“I think we’re only a few short of that 30%,” she said. “We’ll keep working on it until either (the negotiating teams) come to an agreement on a contract or we get the number we need to re-file. It’s just that important to us to not give up. We want to still fight for our community.”

Shannon Fitch, a registered nurse and member of the bargaining team, responded to the push to decertify the union by saying “a super majority of nurses have signed membership cards and are committed to being union members.”

“Any attempt to divide us against each other won’t succeed because our union is here to stay and we are proud to be members,” Fitch said.

The nurses’ bargaining team and hospital management met on the same day the petition was withdrawn, their first round of negotiations since nurses staged an unfair labor practice strike on June 1-4. Clark, with SEIU, said the meeting resulted in minor areas of tentative agreement, but didn’t produce “movement on staffing or wages/benefits,” which remain the biggest sticking points.

The areas of tentative agreement, Clark said, are defining all jobs in the bargaining unit; defining per-diem nurses brought on during staffing shortages; and ensuring all nurses receive adequate rest between shifts even when on call.

Another bargaining meeting was scheduled for June 15.

Nurses at Logan Health voted 372-199 to unionize in a July 2019 secret ballot election that was overseen by the NLRB. The vote created a bargaining unit of roughly 650 nurses across the health system.

Nurses have detailed a number of grievances, including below-market wages and other working conditions that they say lead to difficulty in staff recruitment and retention, as well as low morale. They say the hospital over the years has increasingly adopted a corporate model of healthcare that spends money on efforts such as rebranding and out-of-area expansion, while failing to adequately invest in nurses who are critical to patient care.

Logan Health officials have countered that nurses’ negotiation demands are unreasonable. Both sides accuse the other of coercion and misrepresenting negotiations.