Tenet asks for revote on whether nurses can form union

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/052908dnbustenetrevote.ab06fd7d.html

02:05 PM CDT on Monday, April 28, 2008

By JASON ROBERSON / The Dallas Morning News
[e-mail]

Tenet Healthcare Corp. said Monday it is requesting a revote on whether nurses at a Houston hospital can form a union.

A March 27 vote at Tenet’s Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center in Houston would have been the first successful nurses union vote in Texas history. But afterwards, Tenet said it received reports that union supporters threatened and coerced other nurses who opposed unionization. The Dallas-based hospital system said Monday it has filed objections to the union vote with both the National Labor Relations Board and the arbitrator of an agreement Tenet signed with unions.

Tenet and its unions, the California Nurses Association and the Service Employees International Union, previously agreed to a set of rules under the so-called Peace Accord, which called for fair elections free of negative attacks.

The vote is of importance to Dallas-area nurses and patients because it could foretell how similar union votes might end. Under Tenet’s agreement with the unions, nurses at the company’s Dallas-based hospitals cannot vote to form a union until 2010.

Tenet said the Cypress Fairbanks vote on whether to unionize — 119 to 111 — should be recast because union representatives created an “atmosphere of intimidation,” which included:

•Taking pictures of nurses who opposed the union against their wishes

•Removing a large tri-panel poster board created by nurses who opposed the union

•Providing misinformation on the voting process which prevented eligible nurses from voting

The hearing with the Houston-based arbitrator, Diane Massey, closed Thursday, and Tenet is expecting a ruling in a couple of weeks. By law, Ms. Massey has broad powers, which can range from finding nothing wrong with the vote and siding with the union to finding that the union acted improperly.

If Ms. Massey agrees with Tenet and decides on a revote, she has the power to schedule it at anytime; it could be as soon as two weeks or several years.

[Warpy]

1. This looks like the false flag operations

that union busting companies routinely do when they're brought in to prevent workers from organizing.

I hope Ms. Massey has a well functioning bullshit detector.