|
03.14.2006
NURSES FILE CHARGES AGAINST
UMMC
DISCIPLINE & HARASSMENT SHOW PATTERN OF UNION BUSTING
“What is more important to our patients, clean
instruments in the O.R. or management control?”
The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) union
bargaining units at two hospitals of the UMass Memorial Medical
Center (UMMC) have filed charges against the hospitals before the
National Labor Relations Board. The MNA asserts that UMMC is harassing
and subverting the authority of the union and its leadership in
an attempt to break the union.
The MNA charges UMass Memorial Medical Center and
its two hospitals with unfair labor practices for singling out and
disciplining Jackie Brosnihan, the unit chair at the Memorial Campus,
and not allowing Judy Locke, the vice chair at the University Campus
to carry out protected union activity. In addition to punitive scheduling
tactics, they also charge that Locke was denied the right to take
shifts in the new Lakeside Post Anesthesia Care and Surgical Admissions
areas thereby adversely affecting patient care. The manager has
refused to orient her to the new area despite 26 years of experience
caring for these patients. One hundred and twenty-two unfilled shifts
were on the need’s list when the new unit opened and the shortfall
is ongoing.
The charge states that the UMMC is trying to undermine
the union and not allow the union officers to carry out activities
protected by the National Labor Relations Act. The charge underscores
a dramatic change in the overall work environment at the UMass Memorial
Medical Center, where management has taken a more aggressive anti-union
and anti-nurse posture, at a time when staffing conditions have
deteriorated and employee morale has plummeted.
At the Memorial campus the unit chairperson, Jackie
Brosnihan, has been falsely accused in six individual instances
of wrongdoing and has been threatened with termination. “Management
has done everything they can to stop me from carrying out my union
duties,’ said Brosnihan. “They have disciplined me for
speaking to members, management has tried to keep me from representing
the bargaining unit, and they have harassed me even during patient
care.” According to Brosnihan, the most outrageous charge
was when she was disciplined for showing a senior administrator
a contaminated, dirty instrument that was supposed to be clean and
sterile for use on a patient for a surgical procedure. “Using
contaminated instrumentation is against our nursing practice and
unsafe for our patients. Infection is a huge risk for our surgical
patients. We would not start a case with contaminated instruments
and I wanted to bring this to the attention of the vice president
of Surgical Services since this has been a continuous dangerous
problem.”
On the University campus, Judy Locke faced much
the same problems. When her unit was closed and a new very similar
unit was opened, management refused to bargain with the union over
what would happen to the present employees. “I guess you could
call the old unit a very active unit for the union,” said
Locke. “We feel this was the reason they refused to enter
into the standard bargaining over this issue. We are confident we
could have moved to the new Lakeside unit with our patient population
if the hospital had been willing to address our concerns. When the
unit closed, I took a position in another unit. Since then, I have
had the problem of being denied the ability to work open shifts
at Lakeside. Management refuses to orient me to these new units
that are in desperate need of experienced nurses. I have spent most
of my nursing career in this specialty and am willing to work there
still. This all has a very serious negative affect on patient care.”
Both leaders believe that management has made a
conscious effort to bad mouth the union and put it in a very negative
light. One supervisor at University told a group of nurses that
their unit was short staffed because a union member was “off
at a MNA convention having fun while we’re working our tails
off.” And at Memorial, Brosnihan was told by management personnel
that they would decide what a union issue is and would control how
the union contract would be applied to the bargaining unit members.
Other bargaining unit members were intimidated from speaking out
and some managers would not allow Brosnihan to speak with members
regarding potential union issues.
In addition to attacking union leaders, UMMC has
come to the negotiating table at the University campus with a host
of proposals that would take away a number of hard won benefits
enjoyed by the nurses, including their pension, health care costs
and co-pays and Family Leave provisions.
In the last year, the administration of UMass Memorial
has hired a new head of Human Resources who, according to the union,
clearly changed the union-management relationship, and did it by
design.
According to Roland Goff, director of MNA’s
Labor Relations, “It is clear to us that this administration
has made a decision that they are intent on fostering a toxic and
antagonistic relationship that management believes will intimidate
and silence the union.”
That will not happen according to Locke, “They
have made a major miscalculation. Their activities have only made
the union stronger, and it has mobilized the entire nursing community
at our institutions to stand up and fight for ourselves and for
our patients.”
The Massachusetts Nurses Association filed the charges
in February and anticipates a hearing at the NLRB in the near future.
###
|
