A group of 213 workers at a Lebanon, Oregon, nursing home for veterans won a union May 20. The vote was a “re-run” election, held after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the results of an earlier union vote were tainted labor law violations by management at non-profit Veterans Care Centers of Oregon. The re-run tally was 75 to 63 in favor of joining United Steelworkers of America (USW). USW represents about 170 workers at a veterans nursing home in The Dalles, Oregon, that is run by the same employer.
The newly unionized Lebanon unit includes certified nurse assistants, licensed practical nurses, medical records clerks, activities coordinators, barbers, and maintenance and transportation workers. A separate union vote was held for “professional” employees like registered nurses, but they voted 8 to 3 not to join the union.
On Feb. 7 — when USW first asked the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a union election — more than 60 percent of the Lebanon nursing home’s 215 workers had signed union authorization cards, said USW District 12 staff representative Jim Kilborn. But when the election was held on March 4, the tally was 58 to 59: USW lost by one vote.
Kilborn says some union supporters didn’t cast ballots because managers were loitering near the balloting area. And that tactic was the culmination of a series of coercive statements and actions by nursing home managers. Three pro-union workers were given formal warnings for passing out union literature in the parking lot and in the break room and sending pro-union text messages. Managers also told employees not to talk about the union while working. One worker — told to leave for talking about the union — was followed out of the building. Managers also said there would be no union, and that a union wouldn’t be able to help.
All of those things violated federal labor law, USW charged. The NLRB agreed. The NLRB also objected to employee handbook policies that prohibited workers from distributing union literature and that barred workers from being on the premises when off the clock.
To settle the charges with the NLRB, Veterans Care Centers of Oregon agreed to revise its handbook, rescind the discipline of the three workers, and cooperate on a new election, which the union won by 54 percent.
Meanwhile, workers at the nursing home in The Dalles voted May 23 to approve a new three-year agreement that will raise wages 15 percent. For the first time, the agreement also includes union security — a requirement that all represented workers pay union dues.
Kilborn said the union faced hostile management there, too.Managers pulled down union information about the tentative agreement on the day of the ratification vote. And even with the contract ratification, supporters will have to defend their union there, because a group of anti-union employees gathered signatures of at least 30 percent of the work force to hold a decertification vote. That vote has not been scheduled yet.
