[Gampopa]

Denver Health, nurses settle union-push suit

By maustin@denverpost.com
Marsha Austin
Denver Post Staff Writer


Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - Registered nurses at Denver Health Medical Center reached an out-of-court settlement with the hospital allowing them to continue attempts to form a labor union, the Service Employees International Union said Monday.

The agreement settles a First Amendment lawsuit filed by Denver Health nurses and SEIU Local 105 in June 2003 charging that the hospital was violating nurses' rights to free speech and freedom of association.

In the lawsuit, nurses alleged that for about a year, supervisors threatened, harassed and discriminated against them for attempting to form a union.

Under the settlement agreement, in which Denver Health denied "any liability for or participation in alleged unconstitutional or unlawful conduct," the hospital agreed to state, in writing, that it will not discriminate or harass employees who want to join a union, a Denver Health statement said.

Nurses at Denver Health, which has about 800 registered nurses, heralded the agreement as a major step toward gaining a say in how to improve staffing and patient care.

"Finally, after all this time, we can talk openly about improving care for our patients by forming a union without fearing for our jobs - our agreement with Denver Health guarantees our rights to free speech," said Mike Kingsbury, a registered nurse and labor organizer at Denver Health.

But even if Denver Health nurses get the votes to form a union, they still face another major hurdle: getting recognized by hospital officials.

Because Denver Health is a quasi-public organization, recognized as a political subdivision of the state, its employees are not covered under the National Labor Relations Act, which gives employees of private companies the right to negotiate pay, benefits, working conditions and other workplace issues with management.

In June 2003, Denver Health's board of directors refused to recognize a nurses union, citing competitive pay, open communication policies and high patient-care standards.

If Denver Health nurses succeed in forming a union, they would be among few hospital- based RNs in Colorado to do so.

Unlike big-labor states such as California, where nearly half of all nurses belong to a union, Colorado's nurse labor force is nearly union-free. Nurses at Denver's Veterans Affairs Medical Center are the only hospital-based nurses to have successfully formed a union in recent years.

[JBudd]

Good grief, they still don't have a union? I worked there in the early 80's, great nurses to mentor me, but absolutely rotten scheduling practices. Who in their right mind gives a grad nurse 10 patients? Or puts her in "charge" of a stepdown unit one night (not even the floor she knows) because there isn't another RN available, with the assurance that the LPN is totally competent, and I'm just there to be on the books... they flattered me and I believed them (I was very naive in those days, NO MORE)