The National Labor Relations Board ordered a new union election for 43,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers in California after discounting the results of a previous election mired in accusations of misconduct.
In Oct. 2010, Kaiser employees voted 61 percent to 39 percent to remain with the United Healthcare workers, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, and elected not to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers. The vote was the largest mail-in election in NLRB history.
NUHW filed a complaint claiming improper conduct by SEIU. Administrative law judge Lana H. Parke conducted an investigation and found SEIU guilty of misconduct, with collusion from Kaiser Permanente, which impeded the employees’ exercise of a free and reasoned choice.
[See also: New Kaiser union election recommended after SEIU found guilty of misconduct.]
In her ruling, Parke wrote that in the election, SEIU's communications to employees about possible benefit losses were “silent, menacing reminders that Kaiser not only could, but already had, unilaterally withheld benefits when other employees had chosen to be represented by NUHW.”
Parke also found that SEIU “was joined in its warnings by Kaiser's President [Ben] Chu, who informed employees that only members of coalition unions were guaranteed PSP incentive bonuses….In these circumstances, widely disseminated warnings that the PSP incentive bonuses would not survive a change of representative must also have tended to interfere with employees' freedom of choice."
The full NLRB agreed that a new election is warranted. A re-election could occur within months.