The National Labor Relations Board ruled June 3 that Medford, Ore.-based Asante unlawfully refused to recognize and bargain with a union that healthcare workers at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center voted to certify in 2023.
A three-member panel of the NLRB also ordered Asante to provide the Oregon Nurses Association with requested information relevant to collective bargaining, though the board declined to order the immediate release of certain financial records.
The order comes three years after more than 250 healthcare technical workers and licensed practical nurses at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center, a 378-bed regional referral and trauma center in Medford, voted to join ONA.
Asante contested the union’s certification, arguing the union violated federal labor election rules during the organizing campaign. The NLRB rejected those arguments in 2024 and again in its June 3 decision.
The union has contended that Asante’s legal challenges were an attempt to delay bargaining and subvert workers’ decision to unionize.
“This is a monumental victory for local patients, healthcare professionals and everyone in the Rogue Valley. Asante executives are cashing outrageous paychecks while cutting local care and ignoring the healthcare workers who make our hospital run,” Fred Katz, RN, ONA’s registered nurse bargaining unit chair at Asante Rogue Regional, said in a union news release.
“Techs and LPNs take tremendous pride in their work and our community. They chose to unionize more than three years ago so they could hold Asante executives and board members accountable to Southern Oregonians and ensure the hospital invests in local patient care, staffing and safety improvements.
“Today’s order is a critical step to keep Asante’s executives and board honest and ensure they live by the same laws as everyone else. Asante executives must stop stalling and sit down at the bargaining table with techs to protect patients, retain caregivers and put our community and its healthcare first.”
Asante provided the following statement to Becker’s: “The decision is part of the established legal process for Asante to obtain judicial review of the certification of the ONA election. Asante remains committed to following this process.”
In NLRB filings, the health system argued that union representatives improperly campaigned among employees before the 2023 election, including by distributing free cake and encouraging workers to support the union.
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