toledoblade.com --

Seven years after much of the workforce at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center was unionized, anti-union nurses have won a round in their effort to oust the United Auto Workers.

The National Labor Relations Board in Cleveland has said evidence is sufficient to hold a hearing on contentions by nurse Amy Anderson that participants in an anti-UAW campaign were coerced and intimidated by union representatives.

NLRB regional director Frederick Calatrello, in a complaint against the union late last month, set the hearing for April 24 in Cleveland before an administrative law judge. Agency attorneys will serve as prosecutors. Whatever the outcome, it will affect 1,200 nurses but not 1,300 other unionized employees at St. Vincent.

Neither Sandy Lawson, who represents unionized nurses at the nonprofit hospital, nor Catherine Booher, a member of the UAW's international staff, returned calls for comment yesterday.

But Bruce Baumhower, president of UAW Local 12 in Toledo, said the nurses deny that they acted improperly toward anti-union campaign participants, who call themselves Nurses For a Union Free St. V's.

"We'll let the hearing officer sort it out," Mr. Baumhower said.

The UAW has until Feb. 14 to respond to the agency's complaint.

The anti-union National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation Inc., which is assisting nurses trying to get rid of the UAW, said the nurses have collected sufficient signatures to force a new election on whether the union should stay or go.

Labor board officials will schedule and supervise an election once attorneys there resolve a UAW complaint accusing hospital officials of improperly aiding the anti-union campaign, said Justin Hakes, a Right to Work Foundation spokesman.

A St. Vincent spokesman said the hospital has resolved the matter without admitting wrongdoing, and an NLRB official said a final settlement in the matter is near.

In his complaint accusing UAW representatives of intimidation, the agency's regional director cited several incidents in June and July involving circulation of anti-union petitions.

On one occasion, a union representative "struck" a clip board being held by a UAW opponent, the NLRB alleged.

In several instances, union representatives allegedly stood too close to petition distributors and interrupted them as they tried to talk to colleagues.

Another time, a union representative is accused of following a campaign participant to her car and writing down, or pretending to write down, her car license number.

It is unclear how widespread opposition is to the UAW among St. Vincent nurses, although anti-union forces would have to collect signatures from 30 percent of the bargaining unit to trigger a vote, known as a decertification election.

Randy Malloy, assistant to the NLRB regional director, confirmed that the anti-union group has submitted petitions but said lawyers haven't determined whether the petitions contain sufficient signatures.

Contact Gary T. Pakulski at:
gpakulski@theblade.com
or 419-724-6082.

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