Unity Center for Behavioral Health must recognize and bargain with the union representing its 200 nurses, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled.
Unity is Portland’s only 24-hour psychiatric emergency facility. Nurses there voted 128 to 25 to join the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) on June 19, but Legacy Health, the parent entity of Unity Center, asked the NLRB to discard those results, arguing that Unity Center was part of a broader health system that includes Legacy Emanuel Hospital, and that because of that, nurses couldn’t create a separate bargaining unit.
Legacy may have been hoping the Trump-appointed Board would agree, but on Nov. 19 all three Trump appointees rejected its legal appeal.
