No Endgame Seen by Paul Bass
(Updated) As pro-union clergy gathered inside a Hill church to decry a "betrayal" by an "abusive administration," no endgame appeared in sight Monday in the renewed labor impasse at Yale-New Haven Hospital, although a spokesman said the hospital is "reaching out" to the other side.
Latino and black ministers blasted the hospital at a prayer breakfast at St. Anthony's Church for breaking an historic agreement to pave the way for an orderly, legal, fair election to decide whether Yale-New Haven's 1,800 blue-collar workers want to form a union. The ministers called for a "truth commission" to investigate the hospital's actions in the three weeks leading up to the now-postponed union election scheduled for Dec. 20 and 21.
But union officials said they wouldn't agree at this point even to proceed with a "card-check" process -- requiring only that they collect signatures of 50 percent-plus-one of the workforce to gain recognition -- instead of a secret-ballot election.
Yale-New Haven wouldn't be open to a card-check process, anyway, according to spokesman Vin Petrini. "We think it's a fundamental right of our employees to vote on this issue," he said Monday evening.
In other words, don't look for a quick resolution to a battle that New Haven had believed was headed for a merciful end after almost eight years of bitterness.
"I don't know where this is going. I'm not aware of anybody talking to anybody at this point," said Mayor John DeStefano Monday. He said he didn't see himself seeking to act as the mediator of another peace treaty, "having once mediated this and been burned."
"At this moment," observed Jorge Perez, president of the Board of Aldermen's Black and Hispanic Caucus, "everybody's gonna simply be pointing fingers and screaming at each other."
>From Trust To "Betrayal"
A drive to unionize the hospital's blue-collar force has been ongoing for those eight years, reaching its climax in 2005 and 2006 when political opposition to the hospital held up its plans to build a new $430 million cancer center. The temperature finally cooled this March when the same ministers gathered at St. Anthony's Thursday met privately at another Hill neighborhood church, Sacred Heart, with Yale-New Haven's president, Marna Borgstrom.
After that meeting, the hospital, the mayor, the ministers, and the union, District 1199 of the Service Employees International Union, announced a sweeping peace treaty. The hospital would receive needed permits to build the cancer center. In return, it would agree to steer some of the benefits of that center to the surrounding neighborhood and to abide by a code of conduct for a union election, mediated by a mutually agreed upon arbitrator.
That agreement held up until earlier this month when the Dec. 20-21 date was set for the union election. It was by no means clear that the union would prevail in the election. Then -- the neutral arbitrator found -- the hospital unleashed a series of hospital-wide "captive meetings" with employees to intimidate them and spread lies about the union in order to swing the election. Those tactics violated not only the peace treaty, but labor law, as well. The hospital, after initially defending its actions, apologized and promised to stop if an election could proceed. The union argued that the hospital had rendered a fair election impossible. The National Labor Relations Board agreed and postponed the election indefinitely, pending further investigation. The community -- including two prominent members of the hospital's own board, Yale President Rick Levin and, through his editorial page, Register Publisher Kevin Walsh -- blasted the hospital's "dirty" "sabotage." (The hospital board reportedly met last Friday.)
That community outrage continued to erupt at Thursday's breakfast led by pro-union clergy. Some 50 union organizers, workers, and ministers showed up in a parish hall at St. Anthony's. The Rev. Jose Champagne spoke of the community's history of opposition to the hospital, including its ultimately successful campaign to stop Yale-New Haven from foreclosing on the homes of poor patients with unpaid bills.
Champagne detailed the meetings the group had held with hospital officials over the past year. "The president of the hospital publicly stated the hospital, the city, the union, and the community had reached an agreement that was going to benefit the whole city. We believed in that word, because we believe in the words of people. We lowered our guard, and we allowed that they acquire all the permits to build the cancer center," Champagne said. "…The hospital has betrayed the community." Champagne said the community will not trust the hospital's word in the future or allow its "abusive administration" to "intimidate" people.
The ministers called for a "Truth Commission to conduct an immediate comprehensive investigation to determine the full extent of the hospital's activities since the signing of the agreement."
After the event, the union's lead organizer, David Pickus, was asked if the union would agree to an offer by the hospital (unlikely in any event) to abandon a secret-ballot election in favor of card-check. Pickus' union, and unions in general, have been pushing for card-check processes because, they argue, management misconduct has made fair secret-ballot elections impossible. Mayor John DeStefano last week called for the hospital to agree to card-check in the wake of the disintegration of the peace treaty.
But Pickus said it's "too soon" for "remedies," even card-check.
"We want to find out everything they did," he said. "This was a systematic consultant campaign based on industrial psychology to demonize the union and make a fair election impossible."
So what can the hospital do now? Hospital spokesman Vin Petrini said the hospital has "reached out" to SEIU. "I don't know if they've responded," he said.
"We recognize that meetings took place that should not have taken place in this manner," Petrini said. He expressed hope that the two sides can return to the arbitration and code of conduct they'd agreed on.
Asked about the highly unusual public criticism coming from board member Rick Levin, Petrini said, "He raised concerns about the hospital. We were concerned [too] about meetings that took place when we learned about them... This is a lot of discussion around this issue."
"Propaganda"
An unscripted moment occurred toward the end of the breakfast gathering at St. Anthony, during a question-and-answer session. A member of the audience asked Rev. David Lee what would happen if it turns out fewer than half the hospital's blue-collar workers express support for the union.
Lee didn't directly answer the question at first. Instead, he thanked the audience member for asking the question. He said he "respects" the question.
"That proves to me the power of Yale-New Haven propaganda," Lee continued; why else would anyone question whether workers would support a union that will bring them better pay and benefits?
"There is a majority," Lee concluded. "If you take out fear and intimidation, there's a 100 percent majority."
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