The two-hour vigil is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. It is “intended to draw attention to the vote of Queen caregivers in November to form a union and pressure the hospital to begin bargaining in good faith,” according to the report.
The November 2016 union election involved more than 400 service and technical workers, who decided by a margin of approximately 3-to-2 to unionize. The hospital has appealed the vote. Hospital officials also confirmed earlier this year the National Labor Relations Board filed a “bad faith bargaining order” against Queen of the Valley related to the election. The hospital said a hearing was scheduled for Aug. 7 “to take evidence on charges NUHW has filed.”
“By ordering a hearing, the NLRB has not concluded that Queen of the Valley did anything wrong. Rather, Queen of the valley was expecting this from the NLRB and it is a necessary step in the appeal process that will eventually be reviewed by the United States Court of Appeals. Queen of the Valley maintains that the election held in November 2016 did not ensure all of our employees’ voices were heard in the election,” the hospital explained.
Queen of the Valley added the hospital offered to meet with the union “to discuss the terms of a collective bargaining agreement with the understanding that it would only go into effect if our appeals were denied.” However, the union did not agree to do so.
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