Salem hospital nurses vote on union, but legal wrangling keeps ballots sealed

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nj.com/salem/index.ssf/2010/09/salem_hospital_nurses_vote_on.html

Published: Saturday, September 04, 2010, 3:34 PM

Jaime Marine/Today's Sunbeam

MANNINGTON TWP. — Registered nurses working at The Memorial Hospital of Salem County here have voted in the union election, but the ballots will not be counted until the National Labor Relations Board can hear an appeal filed by the hospital and CHS, the hospital’s parent corporation.

“Nurses won their right to vote even after significant obstacles were placed in their path by the hospital,” said Ann Twomey, president of the 12,000-member Health Professionals and Allied Employees. “That speaks volumes for their determination to protect their profession, their rights, and patient care, and even if delayed, I believe nurses will have their own union soon at Memorial Hospital.”

Registered nurses working at the Mannington Township-based hospital had filed for a union election with the NLRB on May 19, requesting to be represented by the HPAE, the state’s largest union of nurses and health care workers. The election balloting took place on Wednesday and Thursday.

Union officials have claimed that the hospital and its parent corporation, CHS, have continually objected to the nurses’ petition, saying that more than one-third of the 130 RNs were supervisors and therefore ineligible to vote in a union election.

During the hearings that followed in June, union officials claimed that CHS attorneys attempted to keep nurses from testifying, but a decision by the NLRB dismissed their complaints and hearings continued.

FULL story at link.