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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 2, 2008)
Following a heated four-year campaign United Nurses of Legacy expect to file for union election organized by the non-profit Oregon Health Forum. Vukovich was one of the five hospital CEO panelists. Leafletters said Vukovich reacted with distaste, on the way in, when she was handed a flier. This one publicized fire safety problems at Legacy Emanuel. Inside, an audience member asked what the CEOs thought about unions getting active at the State Capitol trying to pass “top-down dictates on hospital staffing levels.” AFT has lobbied in Salem, thus far unsuccessfully, for laws setting minimum nurse-to-patient ratios. “You were probably greeted by United Nurses of Legacy on the way in,” Vukovich replied. “They’re from the East Coast.” “That’s ridiculous,” Painter-Johnson told the Labor Press af- ter the event. “What’s she’s attempting to do is frame us as the evil other.” For the most part, nurses themselves aren’t taking part in the leafletting; Helen Lee, United Nurses of Legacy organizing di- rector said nurses are fearful of publicly supporting the union, because some have been disciplined for doing so. Linda Boly, an RN at Legacy Emanuel, said she’s received a verbal warning and two written warnings for infractions such as talking about the union and handing pro-union fliers to co- workers who were on the clock. She also had her schedule changed, and was disciplined for refusing to work past the Christobal Mozingo, a registered nurse at Legacy, holds a scheduled end of her shift. union placard outside an April 22 hospital CEO forum at the Boly described a management crackdown under way at Multnomah Athletic Club, at which Legacy CEO Pam Emanuel. New rules restrict employee use of break room bul- Vukovich was speaking. letin boards and company e-mail, and ban talking about the union except when both parties are off the clock and out of pa- tient care areas. at the wheel. “Rich directors like Jeffrey Gordon shell out mil- Several groups of Legacy workers are unionized, said Mc- lions to executives,” the flier said, “but can’t find money to as- Daniel, the Legacy spokesperson. But with the nurses, Legacy sure patient safety.” believes direct communication is the best model, she said. Several union fliers have made an issue of CEO salaries: While McDaniel said Legacy supports employees’ legal Legacy’s interim CEO, Pamela Vukovich, made over $1.18 right to choose whether or not they want a union, she also said million in 2007. The union has argued that compensation like some union tactics are inappropriate and have caused concern that — and the $45 million profit Legacy made last year — among nurses, such as trying to distribute fliers to employees would be better spent hiring more nurses, which would im- while they’re at work, and trying to call employees on the prove patient safety. phone while they’re at home. Whitworth disputed those details also in an e-mail to em- Unintentionally, her point drives home how tilted the play- ployees, saying Vukovich’s compensation topped seven figures ing field is during union campaigns: Managers have access to only because she got a five-year retention bonus last year and workers all day long, while union organizers have almost no ac- cashed out some deferred compensation benefits. Her regular cess and get criticized for trying to communicate with workers. salary is $434,000, Whitworth wrote. Last fall, the union-backed workers’ rights group Portland On April 22, union leafletters greeted Vukovich and several Jobs With Justice recruited several prominent pro-union com- hundred health care industry professionals outside the Mult- munity members to serve on a panel of its Workers Rights nomah Athletic Club — site of a “Hospital CEO Roundtable” Board. Those included Democratic Oregon State Representa- tive Tina Kotek, black business leader Joyce Taylor, Portland State Univer- sity professor Barbara Dudley, and Alcena Boozer, rector of St. Philip the Deacon Episcopal Church. Members of the group met with Sonja Steves, Legacy’s senior vice president of hu- man resources, marketing and com- munications and asked her to agree to campaign ground rules, including that neither side would badmouth the other. No deal. If Legacy doesn’t commit to neu- } tral ground rules, union supporters say management will have substantial ad- Endorsed by: vantages in opposing unionization. N Oregon AFSCME But it looks like AFT is getting ready Cam Johnson Greg Sherwood Cam Johnson Greg Sherwood N NW Oregon Labor Council to take its chances. Painter-Johnson Adrian Hamilton Monte Johnson Adrian Hamilton Monte Johnson N SEIU Local 503 said United Nurses of Legacy expects N Firefighters Assoc. of Clackamas County Local 1159 Doug Goebel Goebel Bill Zenk Zenk to file for a government-run union Doug Bill N Tualatin Valley firefighters Union Local 1660 election very soon. Garth Nisbet Pat Worley N Governor John Kitzhaber N Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian One SW SW Columbia St., Suite 1100, Portland, OR 97258 One 1100 Portland, N The Oregonian Editorial Board (April 25, 2008) American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has been trying to unionize 3,000 nurses at Legacy Health System for four years. Over the last month, the campaign has been turning up the heat. Portland-based Legacy is a non-profit chain consisting of five hospitals in the Portland metro area. It was formed by the 1989 merger of hospitals founded by the Lutheran Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon. AFT is a nationwide union with a sizable health care divi- sion. In the Portland area, AFT represents nurses at Kaiser Per- manente and Providence Milwaukie Hospital. AFT has tried to persuade Legacy management to adopt a neutral stance toward the union drive. Partly because of the Legacy’s historic ties to the religious organizations, AFT organ- ized a group of local religious leaders to call on Legacy to agree to a union-written code of conduct for the campaign. Legacy declined. In March, union organizers started publicly distributing leaflets aimed at embarrassing Legacy. “We’ve been nice for four years,” said Robert Painter-John- son, the union staffperson responsible for building community support for the campaign. “The time for nice is gone because they’re not responsive to nice.” Union leafletters are appearing regularly outside Legacy Emanuel with fliers saying the hospital is dirty and unsafe due to cuts in housekeeping hours. The fliers cite a Medicare report that faulted the hospital’s standards of cleanliness. They’ve also been showing up outside branches of West Coast Bank with leaflets making a similar point. Legacy board member Duane McDougall, former CEO of Willamette Indus- tries, is also on the board of West Coast Bancorp. “Tell Duane McDougall,” the flier said, “if he wants your deposits of money at West Coast Bank, clean up the deposits of dirt at Legacy Emanuel.” Legacy Emanuel chief administrative officer April Whit- worth reacted to that with an e-mail to employees: “I am not going to sit back quietly while a group of outside union organ- izers criticize our hospital and staff,” Whitworth wrote. “AFT is a national union that is desperate to organize Legacy’s nurses.… But their organizing efforts … haven’t worked. So now they are trying a new strategy: a public campaign against Emanuel.” “A lot of the statements the union is making, they take things and blow them out of proportion,” Legacy spokesperson Silvia McDaniel told the Northwest Labor Press. On April 21, union leafletters set up outside the Battle- ground, Washington, home of Legacy board member Jeffrey Gordon, a real estate developer. The message: Gordon is asleep Q Quest Investment Management, Inc. • Serving Multi-Employer Multi-Employer Serving Trusts for for Over Twenty Years Trusts Twenty Years Broadway Floral See more endorsements and information at www.CharlotteLehan.com MAY 2, 2008 503-221-0158 503-221-0158 for the BEST flowers call www.QuestInvestment.com www.QuestInvestment.com 503-288-5537 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS 1638 NE Broadway, Portland PAGE 13
