Employees at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill E. Norwegian Street in Pottsville, Pa., are asking the National Labor Relations Board to overturn a ruling they claim forced them into union representation.
The union dispute follows Allentown, Pa.-based Lehigh Valley Health Network's September 2016 merger with Pottsville-based Schuylkill Health. At the time of the merger, workers at the South campus were already unionized. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation claims workers at the East campus rejected unionization attempts, although the union disagrees, saying a number of workers from the previously unorganized East campus have voluntarily submitted union cards to join SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.
About a year after the merger, NLRB Regional Director Dennis Walsh cited the NLRB's 'accretion' policy when he ordered workers on the East campus join the South campus monopoly bargaining unit, said the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, charitable organization, via news release.
Now, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has filed a claim requesting NRLB reverse the order. The motion claims workers were placed under Service Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania representation without their consent, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation said.
According to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Mr. Walsh was previously suspended by the NLRB after the NLRB Inspector General conducted an investigation into him "using his position with the NLRB to solicit contributions to a pro-union scholarship fund from union officials from unions with cases at the labor board."
Now employees seek a review of Mr. Walsh's decision.
"This case demonstrates how the National Labor Relations Act, which is ostensibly about the rights of employees, has been weaponized against independent workers who wish to remain free of union bosses' so-called representation," said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. "These employees successfully opposed an SEIU organizing campaign at their workplace only to have a union partisan at the NLRB force the union on them without a vote or any showing of interest."
But Amelia Abromaitis, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania spokesperson, disagrees.
"The National Right to Work Legal Foundation is an out-of-state special interest group working on behalf of corporate billionaires to suppress the hard-earned wages and job security of everyday Americans. We know people from Lehigh Valley Health want to join with their co-workers in the union to create a better future for themselves and their children," she said.
"Instead of spending more money on needless legal fees, the Lehigh Valley Health System should invest in better jobs for its workforce and better care for the community.
"That includes abiding by the law and honoring the decision of the National Labor Relations Board to extend the same union rights and benefits to all workers in the same health system. It's time to move forward."
A spokesperson for LVHN said the system does not have a reaction about the motion being filed.
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