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Providence labor practices appear at odds with their principles
PH&S ‘behavioral expectations’ are undemocratic and unenforceable
August 13, 2007
Unfair labor practice (ULP) charges and a refusal to clarify labor principles or allow pro-union workers access to meeting space has left many Providence Health & Services employees questioning the system’s claims to support workers’ right to form a union.
Providence employees have been organizing to form a union with SEIU Local 49 for approximately two years. Last summer, the Workers Rights Board Fair Election Oversight Commission, chaired by Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, determined that PH&S’s anti-union tactics made it impossible for hospital workers to hold a fair union election until Providence agreed to fair election ground rules.
Since then, Providence Health & Services released a set of “Labor Relations Principles” and “Behavioral Expectations” which, they say, guide their labor relations. The documents claim to respect workers’ right to choose for themselves whether to form a union.
However, since releasing these documents, which were developed without input from either union or non-union employees, their actions have not appeared to match their rhetoric. ULPs filed in Oregon in the past year suggest that Providence’s actions are not only in conflict with their Behavioral Expectations, but are also in conflict with the National Labor Relations Act.
One such ULP was filed on behalf of Debra McIntosh, a Laboratory Support Representative at Kaiser Permanente and a member of SEIU Local 49, who took a second job at Providence Portland Medical Center (PPMC) in 2006.
"One day, my supervisor pulled me into a conference room to tell me to stop talking about the union during work time, even though no one had ever told us what we could or couldn’t talk about at work. She told me ‘I don’t want you talking about the union because if the union comes in here I’ll lose control of my people and if I lose control of my people they wont respect me.’ I felt really bullied by her and decided to stop working at Providence.”
Because what the supervisor did was illegal, SEIU Local 49 filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge on McIntosh’s behalf with the National Labor Relations Board. In July, Providence agreed to a settlement of the charge, which requires them to post notices notifying employees that they have the right to talk about the union.
The posting states that:
- PPMC will not do anything that interferes with, restrains, or coerces employees with respect to their rights.
- Employees have a right to discuss union-related matters as well as topics concerning their wages, hours and working conditions in non-immediate patient care areas.
- PPMC will not instruct or direct employees not to speak about SEIU, Local 49 or any other labor organization, while permitting them to speak about other non-work related topics.
"I think Providence employees need enforceable election ground rules, because as long as you are afraid to talk about the union, you can’t truly have a fair election,” McIntosh said.
Employees and community members who had hoped to utilize the Behavioral Expectations to protect workers from such harassment have been disappointed to learn that the principles have no provisions for clarification or enforcement.
Members of the Providence Oregon Organizing Council wanted to clarify the Behavioral Expectations, who enforces them and exactly how they can help protect employees’ right to form a union. Because the Behavioral Expectations reference permitting “access to facilities according to our policies, on a non-discriminatory basis,” they asked whether hospital conference rooms could be used to hold meetings regarding forming a union.
“I sent an email to PPMC HR administrator Rian Brown, asking if a group of us could meet with him about the behavioral expectations,” Annette Lybecker, a Mental Health Therapist, and other Lybecker explained. “When he wouldn’t meet with us, a couple dozen of us wrote a letter asking for clarification. When we still didn’t get any answers, a group of employees, community members and faith leaders went to his office to get a response. He told us he’d have to check with public relations before he could give us an answer. Six weeks after my first email, he finally responded that ‘he was not the appropriate person’ to clarify the principles. He also said that the Behavioral Expectations were ‘broad affirmations’ that didn’t cover specific issues such as our request to have access to conference rooms.”
“It was so disappointing to see how this document that Providence holds up as proof that they respect our right to form a union is completely unenforceable and undemocratic. We had no say in this policy and will continue to work for mutually agreed upon ground rules that have teeth,” Lybecker said.
“What’s most disappointing is seeing an organization with such lofty rhetoric as respect, compassion, openness and directness in their core values, principles and guidelines, treat its workers with such disrespect and disregard,” said Reverend Bill Gates of Parkrose United Methodist Church, one of the community members who sought answers from Providence regarding their labor principles. “The workers I have heard from are forming a union to enhance patient care. Why should management be working against that?”
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