NLRB Rules in Favor of Registered Nurses at Cayuga Medical Center; TCWC Calls on Cayuga Medical Center to Abide by Free and Fair Union Election Principles
(Ithaca) The Cayuga Medical Center (CMC) has engaged in numerous illegal attempts to thwart its employees from coming together as workers and engaging in efforts to democratically represent their interests.
This conclusion was just confirmed by a Federal Administrative Law Judge whose 83-page decision, following hearings held in May in Ithaca, who ruled against CMC on several charges brought against the hospital by the National Labor Relations Board.
The Judge confirmed that CMC engaged in “an assortment of unlawful threats, directives, and prohibitions on union activities†including unlawful disciplinary warnings, suspensions, demotions and adverse performance evaluations.
Says CMC Registered Nurse, Anne Marshall:
“This is about more than just a campaign or contract. This is about a nurses right to speak up freely and without worry of retaliation from an employer when they have issues regarding patient safety. This is about being held to an unlawful code of conduct that prevents nurses from speaking freely about patient safety. This is about wasteful spending of valuable tax payers money and wasting community resources to fight the nurses trying to protect this community. This is not just a win for the nurses, but a win for the entire community we serve.”
Adds Marshall: “I would request that the Hospital administration agree to set of Free and Fair Election Practices with the nurses, and refrain from incurring anymore expense in fighting the nurses with regards to their federally protected rights.”
The Tompkins County Workers’ Center calls on Cayuga Medical Center to enter immediately into a formal agreement with organizing nurses to uphold the following Free and Fair Election Practices:
- that the hospital will respect workers’ free speech;
- that workers can access union representatives and information at work;
- that Cayuga Medical Center and 1199SEIU will present workers with factual information;
- that the hospital will not subject workers to mandatory one-on-one anti-union meetings.
The Nurses are continuing their union organizing efforts.
For some more articles developments related to the CMC union campaign, see truthsayers.org