With pro bono legal help, hospital workers ‘send union bosses packing’
Employees at a 130-bed hospital whose home state lacks right-to-work protections are now free to work without having to join a powerful union that had sought to represent them.
The hospital is Windham Community Memorial in Willimantic, Connecticut. The Nutmeg State is one of 24 states that don’t protect workers from strong-armed unions seeking memberships and, with them, mandatory dues or fees.
The union that wanted to represent the staff is the high-profile American Federation of Teachers, well known as “AFT.”
Breaking the news of the breakout is the nonprofit National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
“Following an initial delay, the [federal government’s] National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certified the result, after an overwhelming majority of the hospital’s workers voted to ‘decertify’ the union in a February secret ballot vote,” the foundation announced April 7.
National Right to Work says the vote to oust the union was a 168-70 “landslide.”
Union withdraws objections
National Right to Work notes the AFT’s initial reaction to the vote was to file objections with the NLRB.
However, AFT union officials “soon reversed course and dropped their objections, perhaps recognizing the futility of their efforts to maintain monopoly control of the employees after the overwhelming statement sent by the one-sided result,” the foundation reports.
The announcement credits Windham Hospital respiratory therapist Sara Doner with spearheading the decertification effort.
Doner was aided by National Right to Work attorneys who provided legal advice pro bono, the announcement states.
Winners take victory lap
National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix says in prepared remarks that the AFT under longtime “top boss” Randi Weingarten is “best known for the divisive role union officials have played undermining student and taxpayer interests in the classrooms of public schools nationwide.”
“While lesser known,” Mix adds, “the targets of AFT union boss coercion also include thousands of healthcare providers.”
More Mix:
“We are pleased to have been able to assist this group of hundreds of Windham Community Memorial employees as they exercise their legal right to send AFT union bosses packing, and we encourage anyone else—whether educator or healthcare worker—trapped under AFT control they oppose to reach out for legal aid.”
Full announcement here.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.