NLRB schedules hearing on union workers' complaint

NLRB schedules hearing on union workers' complaint

      The National Labor Relations Board says it has found sufficient evidence to hear a claim filed by the Long Island Regional Office of the Civil Service Employees Association that the Long Beach Medical Center overcharged hundreds of union employees for health insurance. The hearing is scheduled for January 23, 2001, at the NLRB's Brooklyn office and will be heard by an Administrative Law Judge of the Board.
      Since winning the right to represent 450 workers of the medical center in September 1999, the CSEA has accused the medical center of using a variety of strong-arm tactics in an effort to break the union, including unfairly increasing its employees' health-insurance payments.
      While more than a dozen complaints by the CSEA in the last year have either been dismissed or are pending, the NLRB, after a nine-month investigation, has found merit in the health-insurance charges.      
      "We think there's a basis to find the law has been violated by the employer," said Alvin Blyer, NLRB regional director. "It reflects a decision by this office that this is the kind of case that should be decided by a judiciary court. I think we have a fine chance of winning."
      The CSEA filed the unfair labor-practice charge in December, resulting from the medical center having its health-insurance policy canceled. At first, the medical center offered to negotiate with the union on the issue of premiums for a new policy, but later made a unilateral decision as to how much of the cost of a new health plan it would pay. That amount was less than the medical center paid before unionization, even though the new plan cost more, a CSEA representative said.
      In the "Complaint and Notice of Hearing," the NLRB said that the medical center has been "failing and refusing to bargain collectively" with the union. Sheryl Jenks, CSEA spokeswoman, said the medical center also made union workers pay double the cost of health-insurance payments that non-union counterparts were paying.
      "This labor board ruling shows that the Long Beach Medical Center can't get away with trying to pick workers' pockets in the middle of bargaining a contract," said Nick LaMorte, CSEA region president. "Management should hang its head in shame. The National Labor Relations Board made the right decision to bring Long Beach management to task on this issue."
      In response to the Notice of Hearing, Douglas Melzer, who replaced Martin Nester as the medical center's administrator on September 1, issued a press release saying that the NLRB had rejected CSEA's contention that the medical center must continue to pay the entire cost of health insurance, as it did under the old policy.
      Saying that Mr. Blyer had made it clear that "there was nothing wrong in the medical center's requirement that those service employees wishing to participate in the new health plan pay the full increase in the health insurance premium," Mr. Melzer also said there was nothing "improper in requiring that service employees contribute more than the medical center's independent employees."
      Mr. Melzer added that the one remaining issue is to what extent, "if at all, the NLRB can set limits on what the medical center can propose or put into effect if there is a deadlock on the issue of health insurance."
      Mr. Blyer confirmed Mr. Melzer's statements, but said the heart of the case is that "the employees and the union were engaged in negotiations for an initial collective bargaining agreement. During those negotiations, and before an overall agreement was reached, the employer required the union employees to pay, for the first time, a portion of the premium of health insurance. Before those negotiations, the employer provided health care for free.
      "They also asked the represented employees to pay more than the unrepresented employees," Mr. Blyer continued. "The unfair labor practice complaint that we issued basically alleges that the hospital was lawfully allowed to charge represented employees a certain amount for health care, but they charged too much, more than they were allowed."
      Ron King, CSEA region director, told The Herald that the decision to conduct a hearing was confirmation of what employees and the union knew were unfair practices by management, and he called for the medical center to return money that employees have paid for health insurance and to bargain a fair contract.
      "We filed these charges because we knew this insurance-payment issue was another attempt by management to break the union," Mr. King said.
      Michelle Levine, director of labor relations at the medical center, told The Herald that negotiations are ongoing and meetings have been taking place at least once a month, "sometimes two or three times a month."
      "Our labor council feels we're on very firm ground based on previous case law," Ms. Levine said. "Our plan was canceled by Blue Cross. We didn't cancel it, it was canceled for all of New York State. The union took the stand that the employees should contribute nothing to health care. We are confident that when we present the evidence at the hearing, we will prevail."