CHICAGO--Resurrection Health Care, a nonprofit health care corporation operating eight hospitals in the Chicago metropolitan area, will not interfere with union organizing activities under the terms of a settlement reached with the National Labor Relations Board, sources told BNA Oct. 25.

The settlement, reached Oct. 19, follows NLRB Region 13’s decision to issue a complaint alleging that RHC had violated federal labor law. The complaint responded to unfair labor practice charges filed with the board by Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Council 31 has unsuccessfully waged a four-year organizing battle with RHC in a bid to represent some portion of RHC’s 16,000-person workforce.

Brian Crawford, a spokesman for RHC, said the health care chain is already in compliance with the settlement. Among other things, the settlement requires RHC to post notices at its facilities informing employees that it will not interfere with organizing rights established under the National Labor Relations Act. Crawford denied allegations that RHC management had ever engaged in activities aimed at subverting the intent of the NLRA.

“We decided to settle to avoid the cost of litigation,’’ Crawford told BNA. “It made more sense to just post the notices than continue with this. In fact, we were doing this voluntarily prior to the settlement. Frankly, this message expressing our employees’ right to form unions is something we communicate all the time.’’

But Ramsin Canon, a spokesman for Council 31, alleged RHC has illegally obstructed the union’s ongoing organizing drive. He said the incidents leading to the ULP charges included RHC managers barring employees from distributing union materials and the interrogating of union activists about their activities. In one case, he said an RHC security worker threatened an off-duty worker because she was wearing a union T-shirt.

“For all of Resurrection’s rhetoric about its Catholic social mission, the reality is that management has created a climate of fear and intimidation,’’ Canon said. “This climate of fear makes it impossible for the workers to make rational choices. We hope the settlement helps workers understand their rights and forces management to back off.’’

In addition to its family of hospitals, RHC operates nursing homes, retirement communities, home health services, behavioral health programs, and other health services throughout Chicago and its suburbs. RHC is affiliated with the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth and the Sisters of the Resurrection.