Hospital challenging nurses union election

RENO, Nev. - The city's largest hospital has filed an objection with the National Labor Relations Board to try to void the first union election for nurses in the hospital's 137-year history.

But union leaders said Saturday the officials at Washoe Medical Center are acting like "poor losers" and that they were confident the NLRB would uphold last week's victory for the International Union of Operating Engineers.

The hospital's registered nurses voted 315-206 last week to join the ranks of the union's Local 3 based in Alameda, Calif.

Hospital officials said in a statement that union observers allegedly had direct contact with voters "in and around the voting area during polling times," which may have "interfered with employees' ability to exercise a free and reasoned choice in the election."

In addition, they said an NLRB agent responsible for overseeing the election may have denied eligible voters a chance to vote and added voter names to the eligibility list without the agreement of both sides.

"We are taking this action to ensure that the rights of employees to vote in a fair, impartial and unbiased election have not been compromised," said Rod Callahan, Washoe Health System's chief operating officer.

Steve Moler, a spokesman for Local 3, said Saturday he believed the NLRB "ran the election fine and everything was done professionally.

"We think those charges are very frivolous. The hospital is just acting like poor losers," he said.

"We kind of anticipated this because they knew they were going to lose. I just don't think it is going to stick. This in no way had any impact on the election."

Michael Leong, a supervisor examiner for the NLRB's regional office in Oakland, Calif., said the agency had no immediate comment.

"They just filed the objection. They have a certain amount of time to produce evidence. Until then, we have no idea whether the objections have merit or not," Leong said.

Complainants typically have a week to follow up with evidence, he said.

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