Group of KRH nurses file for union recognition

A group of nurses hand-delivered a note to the hospital’s chief executive officer on Thursday, detailing union representation by Service Employees International Union Healthcare 1199NW and pressing for hospital officials to “recognize the union,” according to a press release from the hospital.

The letter came from a group called the KRH Organizing Committee that announced a petition has been filed for union recognition with the National Labor Relations Board. The letter was signed by “an overwhelming majority of nurses” from Kalispell Regional Medical Center, The HealthCenter, Brendan House and Kalispell Regional Health Clinic, who say “forming a union is a necessary step in ensuring quality care and good jobs for all hospital workers.” That’s according to a separate press release from the Service Employees International Union.

Allison Linville, a spokeswoman for Kalispell Regional Healthcare, said the hospital has been aware of unionization efforts at the hospital since last fall.

The letter is a continuation of the efforts to unionize that led the Montana Nurses Association to file charges against the hospital in December 2018, which were later withdrawn following an investigation by the National Labor Relations Board.

The association had alleged Kalispell Regional violated the National Labor Relations Act by engaging in unfair labor practices and was impeding on the nursing staff’s ability to unionize after the hospital announced an “employee restructuring” in late November that would include modified titles, roles and responsibilities of more than 100 hospital leaders. However, hospital officials maintained the restructuring was not synonymous with layoffs and in early February, announced that 50 charge nurses “secured new clinical nursing positions” as part of the restructuring. Most of those nurses received promotions and only a small handful did not receive new positions, but received severance pay.

But according to the press release from the union, “recent changes, including restructuring of nurse positions, have impacted care, and the nurses say that management has not listened to their concerns.”

Karen Rupp, a registered nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at Kalispell Regional, said as part of the press release that management has made changes to staffing levels that “might be good for the bottom line but make it hard to care for our patients.”

John Fitch, a registered nurse with the hospital’s emergency department, added to the statement, saying “We’re asking management to come to the table, hear our concerns and work with us to make this a safer place for our patients.”

The letter that landed in the hands of Kalispell Regional CEO Craig Lambrecht did not specify which hospital employees the union seeks to represent.

“In this situation, we were being asked to recognize the SEIU as the union for a bargaining unit for certain employees without all employees having the opportunity to vote as per NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) rules,” Linville said in an email.

Under the law, employees have equal rights to support or not support unionization and according to the press release, the hospital believes “the best way to honor and respect employees’ individual rights to choose or reject the union representation is through the legal process by which the National Labor Relations Board conducts a secret ballot election that allows employees to vote on the matter.”

For this reason, Kalispell Regional Healthcare will not agree to request or “recognize” the union as the representative for a group of the hospital employees because in doing so, the hospital would “deprive employees of their legal right to decide for themselves.”

The Service Employees International Union Healthcare is an organization made up of 2 million members “united by the belief in the dignity and worth of workers and the services they provide and dedicated to improving the lives of workers and their families and create a more just and humane society.”

According to the union’s press release, support for the union is widespread and the election could occur within the next three to four weeks, pending approval from the National Labor Relations Board.

“If nurses vote to become a union, management would be legally obligated to bargain working conditions, wages and benefits in good faith,” the press release noted.

Linville said the hospital will work to cooperate with the National Labor Relations Board moving forward. She said hospital officials are “still receiving more information” regarding the letter and petition.

Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4439 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com