Local nurses rally against labor ruling - OAKLAND: Decision would reclassify many workers as managers

By Sandy Kleffman
Contra Costa Times
July 12, 2006

OAKLAND - More than 400 nurses rallied Tuesday in downtown Oakland in the hope of preventing a legal decision they said could sharply restrict union membership and limit the power of the influential California Nurses Association and other unions.

"This is a fight we're going to win -- they're not going to bust our union," CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro told the crowd.

The noon event mirrored a rally in downtown Los Angeles that also drew several hundred nurses and their supporters. Similar events are planned in Chicago and other cities this week.

The groups fear an imminent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board will go against organized labor.

In three cases, the board has been asked to broaden the definition of supervisor to include more workers. Because supervisors are considered managers ineligible for union membership, that could reduce union ranks and limit who can be organized.

"Essentially, you'd be denying a large segment of working people everywhere the right to organize," said Mike Griffing, director of collective bargaining for the union. "It's going to turn the health care industry into a war zone."

The cases involve nurses at Oakwood Healthcare Inc. in Taylor, Mich., and Golden Crest Healthcare Center in Hibbing, Minn. The third case centers on manufacturing, shipping and other employees at Croft Metals in McComb, Miss.

The employers argue that unions have falsely inflated their membership by including many workers who have oversight of other employees. It is only fair, they say, to switch these employees to management.

How many workers could be affected would depend on the scope of any changes approved by the NLRB. It would be up to each employer to decide whether to continue with existing labor arrangements or seek to reclassify workers.

Union leaders fear the decision could affect several hundred thousand workers nationwide, including thousands of nurses.

The controversy exists because many nurses handle scheduling, serve as resource people for less-experienced workers, or direct nurses aides and other lower-ranked employees.

Some manufacturing workers oversee apprentices and serve as team leaders.

The unions argue that such employees don't have the power to hire, fire, boost staffing levels and do other things that managers typically do.

"There is no way I equate myself with a supervisor," said Karen Bardoni, a registered nurse at St. Mary's hospital in San Francisco. "To call us that is absolutely absurd."

Jan Rodolfo, a registered nurse who works with cancer patients at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, said a decision to reclassify workers could remove the most experienced nurses from union ranks.

"I feel like our union gives me a voice," she said. "For as long as I've been practicing as a nurse, I've been in a union. That's always been a given for me."

Union leaders said they took the unusual step of organizing protests in advance of an NLRB decision because they anticipate a negative ruling from a five-member board appointed by President Bush that has made other pro-business decisions recently.

"This is the most anti-union NLRB in the history of this country," DeMoro said.

Wearing red T-shirts with photos of three nurses flexing their muscles on the back, the nurses carried signs reading "Bush NLRB: Hands Off Our Rights" and sang songs with lyrics such as "We Need Justice in the White House Now."

If the NLRB does issue a ruling to broaden the definition of supervisors, DeMoro said, the union will consider striking hospitals throughout the state to prevent them from implementing it.