news on the campaign front...
Federal statutes for union representation require approval by more than 50 percent of the registered nurses.
Bringing the union to South Jersey Healthcare facilities would help improve the quality of patient care and professional development in an industry increasingly driven by the bottom line, said nurses involved in the organization effort.
"We believe that organizing a union will further the goal of improving the quality of care that we can provide to our patients, as well as raise the standards of our profession," Dee Ziegler, a registered nurse working at a SJH facility in Bridgeton, said in the union's news release.
Hospital officials contend the union would be an unnecessary interference in employer-employee relations.
Whether South Jersey Healthcare, which runs the Regional Medical Center in Vineland, the hospital in Elmer and a mental health facility in Bridgeton, accepts the cards bearing the signatures as proof of the nurses' desire to be represented by a union remains to be seen, according to HPAE officials.
The health system can either accept the filing to unionize, or it can force a vote by nurses.
If it doesn't accept the signatures, the NLRB would supervise an election by the registered nurses at the facilities, possibly as soon as three or four weeks, said Jeanne Oterson, director of public policy for the union.
"It would be a nice show of confidence in the nurses," Oterson said of accepting the signed cards. "But with the way things have gone, I wouldn't be surprised if South Jersey Healthcare does everything possible to derail the election."
The union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the NLRB on what Oterson called "union busting" tactics she claimed SJH officials have used to stop the union organization effort.
Nurses at the two hospitals have been forced to attend meetings as a "captive audience" where the HPAE was criticized without any balanced representation from union supporters, Oterson said.
South Jersey Healthcare also could delay the vote by filing to remove charge nurses, or nurses who act as team leaders on patient care units, from participating in the election, Oterson said.
Several hospitals in the state have tried to classify charge nurses as management, although they don't formulate policy or discipline other nurses, Oterson said.
"In every contract we've negotiated, we've preserved the right of every nurse to union representation," Oterson said.
South Jersey Healthcare spokesman Paul Simon denied any "union-busting tactics," but said SJH officials oppose the union effort.
"We don't feel the union is in the best interest of our relationship with our employees," he said.
But Oterson and some nurses at SJH facilities said the union would help prove an adequate patient-to-nurse ratio and give nurses a voice in patient care issues.
Oterson also said retirement security has been an issue in other contracts negotiated at the 11 hospitals organized by the HPAE.
The union recently came to an agreement with eight of nine hospitals in the state where registered nurses had contracts expire on May 31, Oterson said. None of the contracts has involved issues about pay raises, she added.
Originally published June 15, 2006