NLRB Issues Consolidated Complaint Against Nationwide Healthcare Company

NLRB Issues Consolidated Complaint Against Community Health Systems, Inc.

This release from the NLRB announcing a consolidated charge against national health care provider Community Health Systems Inc was sent in by CUE Labor Lawyer Advisory Committee member Wayne Landsverk of Miller Nash Graham & Dunn LLP. Wayne suggests the article is especially important for those CUE members operating in the health care sector. – Michael

The National Labor Relations Board’s Office of the General Counsel has issued a consolidated complaint against Community Health Systems, Inc. (CHS), the parent company of a nationwide chain of hospitals. The consolidated complaint alleges that CHS and seven wholly-owned subsidiary hospitals comprise a single integrated employer that has violated the National Labor Relations Act by engaging in a series of unfair labor practices. Specifically, it is alleged that CHS has violated employee rights by, among other things: maintaining rules that infringe on employees’ rights to discuss wages, hours, and working conditions with one another and to advocate for better treatment; making statements and taking actions against employees for participating in union activities; and failing to engage in good-faith collective bargaining with the unions that employees have selected as their exclusive collective-bargaining representatives.

Since Regional efforts to settle the matter with the parties were unsuccessful, a consolidated complaint issued today. The complaint involves 29 charges filed against CHS hospitals with the following NLRB Regional Offices:

• Region 8 – Cleveland
  • Affinity Medical Center – Massillon, Ohio
• Region 9 – Cincinnati
  • Kentucky River Medical Center – Jackson, Kentucky
• Region 10 – Atlanta
  • Bluefield Regional Medical Center – Bluefield, West Virginia
  • Greenbrier Valley Medical Center – Ronceverte, West Virginia
• Region 21 – Los Angeles
  • Fallbrook Hospital – Fallbrook, California
• Region 31 – Los Angeles
  • Barstow Community Hospital – Barstow, California
• Region 32 – Oakland
  • Watsonville Community Hospital – Watsonville, California

The consolidated complaint requests specific remedial relief, including: reimbursement for negotiation expenses; a make-whole remedy, including reinstatement, for employees who were the subject of discretionary discharges prior to any bargaining with the employees’ exclusive collective bargaining representatives; the reading and electronic transmission of a Notice to Employees; and a broad, corporate-wide cease and desist order given prior findings of serious unfair labor practices involving many of the facilities in the current matter. To avoid unnecessary delay and to conserve public and private resources, the General Counsel transferred all of these cases to Region 8, Cleveland, which issued the consolidated complaint. Absent settlement, the NLRB is scheduled to begin litigation in Cleveland on December 15, 2015.