Suburban hospital comes under union fire

[Omaha Steve]

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=76469

by Rupa Shenoy
Jan 30, 2008

West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park was charged by the National Labor Relations Board with suppressing union activities, and the hospital denied it.

The NLRB cited an October incident in which a manager kept Torrence Shorter, a union activist and food service employee, from talking with coworkers.

West Suburban is a member hospital of non-profit Resurrection Health Care Corp., the largest Catholic health care system in Illinois.

The episode came a week after Shorter spoke at an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 event, said Robert Malgieri, coordinator of the union’s campaign for representation at the hospital system.

According to the complaint, West Suburban used an "overly broad rule which prohibits employees from speaking to co-workers about concerns affecting conditions of employment and which discriminatorily singles out union supporters..." The hospital "has been interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in (the National Labor Relations) Act...”

A hearing on the complaint is scheduled for March 12.

FULL story at link.