Bloomfield Nursing Home Loses Labor-Case Appeal

[Omaha Steve]

I meat to post in labor. Now that it is here...

http://articles.courant.com/2010-04-15/business/hc-union-nlrb.artapr15_1_deborah-chernoff-nursing-home-appeal

April 15, 2010|By MARA LEE, The Hartford Courant

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Bloomfield Health Care Center violated labor laws in its conduct during a Service Employees International Union drive in 2006.

The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York also ruled that the Bloomfield nursing home's arguments that pro-union actors broke the law were not justified.

The company had appealed a National Labor Relations Board ruling in favor of SEIU Local 1199. The administrator of the nursing home didn't respond to repeated phone calls from The Courant.

Deborah Chernoff, spokeswoman for SEIU 1199, said that the only avenue left to the company is to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and that the court usually declines to take up these cases.

The ruling says former nursing assistant Winsome Kitson was suspended illegally because she supported the union. Chernoff said Kitson has since become a social worker, but did receive back pay after an earlier ruling on her behalf.

The union hopes to begin negotiating a contract soon with Bloomfield Health Care Center. In 2006, at the time of the election, the starting pay for nursing assistants there was $10.25 an hour, $2.75 less than a unionized nursing home in Bloomfield.