A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled late last month to certify the union representing GW Hospital nurses, signaling a step toward bargaining with the hospital’s owner almost a year after nurses voted to unionize.
The NLRB director quashed four objections that GW Hospital’s owner and operator Universal Health Services filed in July against the nurses’ vote to unionize days after last summer’s election, saying UHS’ objections to the union’s messaging, voter identification and brief presence of supervisors in the polling area don’t warrant throwing out the election results or a hearing. After the regional NLRB considered the objections, which thwarted the union’s certification for 11 months, the late May decision recognized the District of Columbia Nurses Association as the GW Hospital nurses’ exclusive bargaining representative and granted them the legal right to commence negotiations.
But Edward Smith, the union’s executive director, said UHS will likely appeal the ruling, meaning NLRB’s national board would need to review the operator’s objections to the unionization vote and decide on the union’s certification, which would further shelve contract negotiations.
“We expect them to appeal the decision,” Smith said. “But we also know that we stand a very good chance of winning on appeal, and we will continue to organize and work with the nurses at the hospital to better their treatment and hopefully help patient care.”
Following the decision, Smith said he filed a demand to bargain and an information request about the nurses to the hospital, and “ideally” UHS will meet union representatives to negotiate working conditions, wages and a grievance procedure. He said UHS may ignore the demand to bargain or respond that hospital leaders won’t recognize the union because they’re taking an appeal.
“Universal Health Services made it very clear that they’re very anti-union,” Smith said. “So we do not expect them to sit down to the table with us without external pressure or ultimately when the courts get through with the decisions on the certification.”
GW Hospital did not return a request for comment on the decisions and on whether they plan to appeal the decision or commence bargaining with nurses’ union representatives.
In a second late May ruling, the NLRB regional director dismissed a UHS charge alleging that registered nurse Angelo Estrellas was a supervisor — a position that labor laws bar from participating in union efforts — and coerced nurses in the union election process. The decision affirmed that Estrellas was not a supervisor and could not have coerced nurses into joining. Smith said UHS has since appealed the decision.
GW Hospital suspended and then fired Estrellas last year, which the DCNA has said was a result of his involvement in union organization. The union filed an unfair labor practice complaint last year over the suspension. Smith said the union now has three outstanding unfair labor practice charges against the hospital alleging hospital leaders attempted to hinder unionization efforts, which he expects NLRB to rule on “shortly” in the union’s favor.
Estrellas said he couldn’t contain his emotions when he learned the ruling “vindicated” him last month, adding that his mental health deteriorated after officials terminated him from GW Hospital, where he served as a nurse for more than a decade.
“I devoted my life in that hospital,” Estrellas said. “I’m not a bad nurse, I’m a good nurse, I think. And it affected me finding work, emotionally, psychologically and financially.”
Estrellas said he remains unsure of his next career move but he’s excited to see his former coworkers and for the union to begin bargaining.
“I just want to thank the DCNA for being there for me and the rest of the organizing nurses behind me, that they never left me,” Estrellas said.
