[Baltimore Sun] St. Agnes Hospital nurses request vote to remove union
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Registered nurses opposed to their union at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital in Southwest Baltimore have asked a federal agency to allow a vote over whether employees can be forced to join and pay dues.
Nurses voted last year to join National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United the country’s largest and fastest-growing registered nurse union, citing severe staffing shortages. It marked the first time that registered nurses have unionized a hospital in Baltimore.
A team of unionized nurses is bargaining with management over a labor contract.
At the same time, others now say they no longer want to be represented. A hospital nurse has petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to hold a decertification vote, which would strip union officials of their ability to bargain on nurses’ behalf and to require payment of dues.
The nurse, Jennifer Delaney, submitted a petition Nov. 15 saying at least 30%, or 180 of the 600 members in the unit, agree, a threshold the National Labor Relations Act requires to trigger a decertification vote.
Delaney said the union has been a “divisive force” since it began a campaign at the hospital.
“Many of the nurses opposed its agenda from the very beginning, and a year since ”]it gained power it is still making things difficult for both us and our patients,” Delaney said in a statement.
She did not elaborate but said nurses behind the petition believe a majority of the hospital’s full-time, regular part-time and per diem registered nurses will vote to remove the union.
Others disagree. One union supporter, a registered nurse in vascular access at the hospital, said she and her coworkers voted the union in to have a voice in improving the hospital.
“We unionized to have a voice at our hospital, not to be silenced by management or their buddies at third-party, anti-union organizations,” Robin Buckner, a nurse for 45 years and a member of the employees’ bargaining team, said in an email, adding that unionized hospitals offer better working and care conditions “because nurses have a seat at the table with management.”
Buckner said she feels confident that nurses would recertify the union if needed.
Delaney filed her petition with free legal help from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The advocacy group opposes mandatory union membership and supports “right to work” laws barring compulsory union fees.
It says it is non-partisan, but members of its board have affiliations with the Republican Party, according to Influence Watch. Maryland is not a “Right to Work” state where union membership and union financial support are voluntary.
The NLRB enforces federal labor law, including administering elections to install or remove unions.
An Ascension spokesperson said Tuesday that Saint Agnes has been notified of the petition. Ascension is one of the largest nonprofit and Catholic hospital chains in the nation, with 143 hospitals and other health care facilities in 19 states.
“This is a staff-led initiative,” the spokesperson said. “We respect our associates’ right to determine the path that best supports their professional and workplace needs, including decisions about union representation.”
Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, said in a statement that health care workers across the country are protesting their unions.
“We’ve seen many situations where health care industry unions needlessly promote union boss priorities ahead of what is best for rank-and-file nurses, or even attempt to force health care providers to abandon their patients during union-instigated strikes,” Mix said.
The group’s attorneys also are working with nurses at Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, New Jersey, to obtain decertification elections to remove 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which represents hundreds of employees.
Rose Ryan, press secretary for that union, accused the hospital of waging a “hostile campaign of intimidation” against nurses and unfair bargaining practices during the two years since nurses voted overwhelmingly for a union.
The NLRB has charged the hospital with refusing to bargain in good faith with the union, unlawfully firing a nurse and disciplining others for union activity, and it has postponed the decertification petition.
A hospital spokesperson could not be reached Tuesday.
Have a news tip? Contact Lorraine Mirabella at lmirabella@baltsun.com, (410) 332-6672 and @lmirabella on X.
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