Nurses move to trigger a unionization vote (N. Michigan Hospital)

[struggle4progress]

By KEITH MATHENY
Record-Eagle staff writer

PETOSKEY -- <snip> Teamsters Local 406 attorney Ted Iorio said the union today would submit to the National Labor Relations Board what's known as a representation petition - signed cards from a sufficient number of nurses to trigger a unionization vote.

The union's status became unclear last December, when hospital officials said they received petitions signed by a majority of nurses stating they no longer wanted Teamsters representation. Management declared they no longer recognized the Teamsters as the nurses' agent and would not bargain with the union.

The union and strikers, however, question management's withdrawal of recognition. No one outside the hospital has seen the December petition, and questions exist about how the signature-gathering was conducted, they said. <snip>

The Teamsters won nurse votes in both 2001, when the union was first installed as NMH nurses' representative, and again in 2003.

http://www.record-eagle.com/2005/mar/16nurse.htm

[5thGenDemocrat]

1. An old girl friend of mine is a nurse there

I lived in Petoskey from 1977-81.
This strike has been going on forever (like, it's one of the longest strikes in US history, IIRC). Petoskey isn't a great place for organized labor and I sure don't see either side caving.
John
It's a beautiful place, but also quite Republican.

[Warpy]

2. Nobody wants to cave to a bunch of GIRLS

and that's the problem any nurses' union generally faces. The best deals I've ever seen have come out of binding arbitration.

It usually takes a strike or two to get hospital administration to the table, though.

Nursing is their favorite place to cut costs, then they cry about the nursing shortage.