NLRB Hearing Set for Shasta Regional Medical Center

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

REDDING - After two months of investigation and interviews by the National Labor Relations Board officials, a hearing date has been set for February 18, 2008 in Redding. UPEC staff have aggresively pursued recognition from Prime Healthcare Services, Inc. and filed charges against them for violating the the Collective Bargaining Agreement and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). On the eve of the “Halloween Nightmare”, UPEC filed charges with the NLRB against Prime and Shasta Regionl Medical Center for making unilateral changes without bargaining. This was followed by additional charges by UPEC and the Service Employees Internatinal Union (SEIU). “These are your typical Corporate Bullies who do what they want just to delay the bargaining process. These millionaires know they are violating Federal Law and only care about their bottom line”, said Darker. Darker contends this is a tactic right out of the “Union Busters Textbook”. The Union met with Primes Attorney on November 2, 2008 and tried to convince them to recognize the Union and made offers to try and settle the dispute. Additionally, UPEC continued to make offers to negotiate a settlement over a period of weeks and the Corporation has not invited UPEC back since November 2nd. “We work with employers all over the state and none of them treat their employees and their Union in this manner”, said Darker.
UPEC went through this before with Tenet Healthcare Systems between 2000-2003 where the Corporation kept the Union in litigation by appealing decisions and not settling. While the Union lost nearly $300,000.00 in revenue plus legal fees, UPEC ultimately prevailed and continued their representation of SRMC employees until October 31, 2008.
“I think it’s obvious that our members at SRMC needed our representation then and they certainly need us now. We could walk away from this mess but I can’t let good people; people who we have known for more than 10 years and are our friends and neighbors work for these Corporate bullies without our help”, stated Darker.