Modern Healthcare, February 14, 2005, Monday

Copyright 2005 Crain Communications Inc.
Modern Healthcare

February 14, 2005, Monday

SECTION: Pg. 24

HEADLINE: Labor's success; Unions make strides recruiting healthcare workers

BYLINE: Melanie Evans

BODY:

Labor's clout continues to wane as fewer U.S. workers join unions, but organizers' success wooing healthcare workers remained strong in 2004.
Unions doggedly pursued nurses, radiology technicians and hospital clerks in 2004, seeking elections to represent healthcare workers almost as often as they did transportation workers, according to a report from IRI Consultants to Management and the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration.
And it's a winning strategy for labor, judging by the analysis of federal data by IRI, a Detroit-based consultancy and training company for owners and managers.
Unions won a higher percentage of elections in healthcare ballots when compared with all U.S. industries in 2004, with healthcare labor victories winning 67% of elections overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, a regulatory agency. That's compared with a win rate of 58% for all industries.
Union healthcare victories dropped last year, from a 10-year high of 73% in 2003, but increasingly, healthcare unions successfully go outside of the federal labor board when organizing workers, said Jim Trivisonno, IRI's president.
Just how often unions bypass labor board-governed elections is unknown, Trivisonno said, but labor experts and organizers say alternatives to NLRB elections enjoy more success. Trivisonno dubbed union membership gains from such alternatives ''hidden numbers'' because no one tracks the less formal elections.
Some restrictions
To hold an election governed by the NLRB, unions must collect signed support cards from at least 30% of employees eligible for membership, though organizers rarely seek a vote without backing from 60% of workers. In the month or 45 days before an election, the union and company may campaign but under certain restrictions.
Critics say labor board campaign rules unfairly handicap unions and leave employees open to intimidation by management. Under alternative scenarios, an employer may simply acknowledge a union after reviewing support cards bearing a majority of workers' signatures, a so-called card check, or management may agree to an election but waive its right to campaign against the union, called a neutrality agreement.
Management may agree to recognize a union without an election or surrender its right to campaign in cases where a union already represents employees elsewhere within the company. Or owners may agree to a card check or neutrality agreement if unions launch a public campaign to pressure the company for recognition, a move called a corporate campaign.
''Is the card check imperfect? Yes,'' said James Gross, a professor at the Cornell University School of Industrial Relations. Under the national labor board, an employee's vote is secret, he said. That's not the case in a card check. Employees publicly sign cards, which may prompt a worker to sign on to a union because of peer pressure.
Nonetheless, Gross advocates the method as a way to prevent employers from using subtle or direct pressure to halt organizing efforts. ''The card check is a better way, not a perfect way,'' he said.
Not everyone is pleased, however. In coming months, the National Labor Relations Board is expected to rule on an issue that threatens to undermine such informal organizing, said Charles Craver, a labor law professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
At issue is how quickly employees may seek to reject a union in cases where an employer waived its right to campaign and agreed to bypass a labor board election. Typically, workers must wait nine to 12 months before seeking to dissolve a union.
The board's decision may lift that waiting period, which could disrupt bargaining as newly elected unions struggle to negotiate a contract and persuade employees to remain.