International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 406 Oct. 23 withdrew challenges before the National Labor Relations Board to a June 2005 decertification election for registered nurses at Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey, Mich., effectively ending IBT representation and a four-year strike at the facility.

NLRB Region 7 Director Stephen Glasser Nov. 2 told BNA that the union's indication that it did not want to proceed with an Oct. 24 hearing marks “the end of the matter.” No further issues are pending before the NLRB regarding Teamsters representation of the nurses and a strike that began in November 2002.

“This closes a chapter in our history,” Tom Mroczkowski, president and chief executive officer of Northern Michigan Hospital, said in an Oct. 26 statement. “We are pleased that the majority decision of our nurses against representation has been fully validated.”

However, Ted Iorio, attorney for IBT Local 406, said, “It is outrageous what has gone on here.” The union withdrew from the hearing, he said, because “the board had decided without a hearing that the strikers had been replaced.” Without a hearing, the hospital's evidence about the size of the unit and those eligible to vote was never made public, he told BNA.

The Teamsters also calculated that the nurses could gain representation more quickly if they were to start over. “Had we gone to the hearing, it would take us 11/2 years to get a decision,” Iorio said. “By Teamsters withdrawing now, nurses can sign up with no bar on the timing,” he said.

IBT had two issues before the NLRB dating from mid-2005. The union had filed an unfair labor practice charge alleging that Northern Michigan Hospital illegally withdrew recognition of the union in December 2004 as bargaining representative of its registered nurses. The Teamsters also had challenged 40 votes in a June 2, 2005, representation election, the third election vote by the nurses in three years.

Nurses Gained IBT Representation in 2002.

The NLRB certified Local 406 as the representative of the hospital's registered nurses Feb. 1, 2002, but the parties failed to reach a first contract after 25 bargaining sessions. On Nov. 14, 2002, the nurses began an economic strike, although the hospital continued operations with nonstriking employees, permanent replacements, crossovers, and temporary nurses called “travelers.”

In a decertification election Nov. 13, 2003, the nurses voted 288-211 in favor of continued union representation for 514 nurses (17 LRW 1533, 12/11/03).

On Dec. 14, 2004, nurses presented the hospital with a “self-help” petition signed by 224 employees stating that they no longer wanted to be represented by the union. Claiming that more than half of eligible nurses had signed the petition, hospital spokeswoman Barbara Allen told BNA Dec. 23, 2004, that “we are legally precluded from negotiating with the Teamsters. We hope it is the beginning of the end of the strike.”

Northern Michigan Hospital contended that as of that date in December it had a full complement of 415 employees in the bargaining unit, made up of 168 nonstriking employees, 80 crossovers, 122 permanent replacements, and 45 travelers, according to the NLRB summary report.

Because the strike was about economic issues, not unfair labor practices, the hospital could legally hire permanent replacements for the striking nurses.

The Teamsters did not challenge the nurses' self-help petition until June 9, almost six months later. Instead, on Jan. 5, 2005, a nurse represented by Local 406 filed a petition seeking a vote on whether the union should be decertified as the representative of the hospital's registered nurses. Iorio said the IBT viewed a decertification election as an opportunity to show it still maintained a majority of support among the nurses.

On Jan. 24, 2005, NLRB dismissed the nurse's petition for a decertification vote (19 LRW 142, 2/3/05), but in response to a subsequent IBT petition filed March 16, the labor board directed a union representation election (19 LRW 549, 4/28/05).

183 Ballots Challenged.

The results of the June 2 NLRB-supervised election were inconclusive, however, because 183 ballots were challenged (19 LRW 758, 6/9/05). Among the 561 nurses eligible to vote, 195 cast ballots against representation, while 109 voted for Teamsters Local 406. Of the 183 challenged ballots, the hospital challenged 141 votes as ineligible, the union challenged 40 votes, and the board agent challenged two votes.

Of the two issues, the NLRB first addressed the Teamsters's allegations that the hospital violated Sections 8(a)(1) and (5) of the National Labor Relations Act by withdrawing recognition of the union Dec. 14, 2004, Glasser said.

On Nov. 28, 2005, an NLRB regional director dismissed IBT's charges that Northern Michigan Hospital illegally withdrew recognition of the union as bargaining representative of its registered nurses (19 LRW 1703, 12/15/05).

The union filed an appeal of the dismissal, and in April the NLRB general counsel remanded the appeal with a request for more information before a decision could be reached.

After several months of gathering information about the size of the unit and those eligible to vote, the NLRB Sept. 8, 2006, denied the appeal, Glasser said.

On Sept. 14, 2006, NLRB issued a notice of a hearing for Oct. 10 on the challenged ballots from the June 2005 representation election. At the hospital's request, the hearing was rescheduled to Oct. 24, but on Oct. 23, the union asked to withdraw its petition before the board.

Iorio said that the hearing would be futile because NLRB's earlier denial of the appeal meant it already had decided the size of the nurses unit without holding a public hearing on the hospital's evidence.