Vote to pick union for nurses delayed
Kaiser hospital allegedly interfered with the process
By Stewart Yerton
Star-Bulletin
A vote that could give a California nurses union a substantial foothold in Hawaii has been postponed following a federal labor agency’s allegations that Kaiser Foundation Hospital illegally interfered with the union’s ability to campaign.
An election to oust the Hawaii Nurses Association and replace it with the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association had been scheduled for the week of Feb. 6.
But according to correspondence from the National Labor Relations Board’s Honolulu office, the NLRB has postponed the vote indefinitely after finding merit to allegations that hospital management engaged in “unlawful restrictions on access/distribution” on three occasions.
The board also stated that certain hospital policies amounted to “overly-broad and restrictive loitering and no-solicitation/no-distribution policies.”
The NLRB has not yet filed a complaint against Kaiser. However, NLRB correspondence states that it has found merit to charges filed by the California nurses union, and the NLRB plans to file a complaint as soon as today if the hospital refuses to settle, said Tom Cestare, officer in charge of the NLRB’s Honolulu office.
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