Union closer to representing Bluffs nurses

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20101029/NEWS01/710309860/1088#union-closer-to-representing-bluffs-nurses

Published Friday October 29, 2010

By Tim Johnson
WORLD-HERALD NEWS SERVICE

COUNCIL BLUFFS — A labor group’s petition to represent nurses at Jennie Edmundson Hospital now moves to the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board.

The director will decide whether the nurses should be allowed to vote on whether to have the Minnesota Nurses Association represent them.

The board heard three days of testimony this week on the petition filed Oct. 13 by the Minnesota Nurses Association. Both sides now have seven days to submit briefs to the NLRB’s regional office in Kansas City, Kan.

Contracted nurses at Jennie Edmundson, part of Iowa Nurses Association Local No. 933, have been represented by the INA since 1966. However, the INA recently decided to stop representing nurses in collective bargaining.

The hospital administration had questions and concerns that it felt could best be addressed in a preliminary NLRB hearing.

FULL story at link.