Union drops labor claims vs. EMMC

BANGOR – Two unfair labor practice claims that a union filed against a local hospital have been withdrawn, according to officials.

The International Association of Machinists, which is hoping to represent approximately 800 nonprofessional workers at Eastern Maine Medical Center, filed the claims with the National Labor Relations Board in March.

Hospital and union representatives said separately Friday that the union has withdrawn the claims.

Jack McKay, union organizer and representative of the machinists, said the union originally filed the claims because the hospital’s policies on nonwork-related conversation violated federal labor laws.

The union withdrew one claim because the hospital changed its policy about what employees could talk about while working, according to McKay. After indicating in a Jan. 24 letter to its employees that they could engage in union advocacy activities while at work only during breaks or lunch hours, the hospital sent out another letter in May saying this policy did not apply to conversation about labor issues, he said.

Such discussion must be allowed if employees are allowed to talk at work about other subjects not related to the job such as politics or sports, McKay said. Both the union and the hospital agree union-related discussions should not occur in front of patients.

The other claim dealt with the hospital’s employee grievance policies, according to McKay. The hospital does not allow participants in a grievance process to talk about it outside of a grievance hearing, even if the grievance may touch upon general labor issues that affect more than one employee. This policy also is overly restrictive and violates federally protected union organizing activities, he said.

McKay said the union withdrew this claim because the grievance procedure is voluntary and only a handful of them have been filed over the past few years.

“We didn’t think NLRB would spend its time and resources regulating a policy that is basically irrelevant,” McKay said.

Hospital spokeswoman Jill McDonald said the notice EMMC received from the NLRB did not indicate why the claims had been withdrawn.

“We’re assuming it’s because there was no basis for a complaint,” McDonald said. “That’s what we’ve believed all along.”

McDonald said the hospital takes care to include its employees in important functions such as decision-making and formulating strategies.

“It’s not needed,” she said of the additional union representation.

Registered nurses at EMMC already have union representation through the Maine State Nurses Association.

McKay said that even though the union has withdrawn the claims, it continues to advocate for formation of a collective bargaining unit among the hospital’s nonprofessional employees. The hospital has improved some labor conditions for its workers, he said, by giving them their first cost-of-living adjustment wage increase in four years and by making sure they are familiar with the federal Family Medical Leave Act.

But McKay said these improvements are no substitute for recognized union representation.

“You could make it a lot better with a union contract,” he said.