The National Labor Relations Board on Aug. 4 revived a petition to remove the union representing about 563 nurses at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital in St. Louis, reversing the decision of a regional director who had blocked it.
A nurse at the hospital filed the petition July 31, 2024, four days after nurses ratified a new contract with the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United. The regional director dismissed it, citing the board’s long-standing rule that a signed contract blocks an election for up to three years.
The board’s 2-1 majority said that rule does not apply in this case because the contract left its start and end dates blank, filling them with placeholders keyed to the ratification date. Nurses deciding when they could file a petition would have had to look outside the document to find those dates, the majority wrote.
The board member who dissented said the dates were determinable from the contract itself and that the ruling unsettles the bargaining relationship.
The case is now back with the regional director, meaning nurses at the hospital could vote on whether to keep their union.
In a statement shared with Becker’s, SSM Health said the decision belongs to its nurses, who “deserve both a voice and a vote,” and that it will respect whatever they decide. The union told Becker’s it does not have any comments at this time.
The union has represented nurses at the hospital since 2012 and reached its most recent contract in July 2024 after a year of negotiations and two strikes.
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