The nurses at UW Health previously had a union, but after Act 10 was passed in 2011, the UW Hospital and Clinics Authority, or UWHCA, said that they were unable to recognize a union under any circumstances.
Days ahead of a strike in September, both SEIU, the union looking to represent the nurses, and UW Health came to a decision to ask the state’s Employment Relations Commission to rule on whether or not the hospital can voluntarily recognize the union.
Why push for a union? Kate Walton, a registered nurse at UW Health, says that since the union dissolved they’ve seen a decrease in working conditions.
“My colleagues and I have really noticed a changed, even since I first started in 2016, a change in both the nurses ability to speak up on behalf of our patients, and things like staffing ratios and the ability to provide safe care for our patients,” Walton says.
Last Friday, the commission issued their ruling, saying that UW Health does not have to recognize the nurses union. The ruling says that the UWHCA is not technically the employer of UW Health nurses under state law, meaning that they have no obligation to recognize a union.
Kate Walton says that they are not surprised by the ruling.
“I honestly don’t think this really changes anything,” Walton says. “We have a meet and discuss process with the hospital, we have a union, we have members, we’ve always had a union, but now we have a union on paper as well as on truth. Now we have a process to meet with the council, and some accountability built into that process, and that’s already been making some changes.”
As part of the September agreement, UW Health agreed to begin holding open meetings with the nurses to address ongoing issues. Walton says that, although these meetings are still in their early stages, they have been able to hold productive meetings to address the issues facing the nurses.
However, the commission did not issue a ruling as to whether the hospital is able to voluntarily recognize the union. And the fact that the hospital authority could recognize a union, if it wanted to, has been the main contention of organizers these last three years.
Voluntary recognition has been the heart of the issue since the nurses reignited their unionization efforts in 2019. Multiple legal memos, including one by the state’s nonpartisan legislative council, who advises policymakers on legal and policy research, and by state Attorney General Josh Kaul, have stated that Act 10 only removed the obligation to recognize a union, and that they are legally allowed to do so voluntarily.
UW Health told WORT today that the decision is an important first step in deciding whether or not they can voluntarily recognize a union, and that they are petitioning the state Supreme Court to issue a final decision on the matter.
But the nurses are looking at taking the case a different route, and instead are working to petition the National Labor Relations Board to hold an unionization election. In a statement Friday, SEIU said that the ruling is simply the first step in a long process of unionization, and that they will continue their efforts to be recognized, either through a court decision, a NLRB decision, or through voluntary recognition.
Ultimately, Walton says that the nurse’s future looks bright.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got some hard earned victories here by standing together as a union, and we are going to continue to stand together and fight for our patients, and to make UW Hospitals the best hospital in the state,” Walton says.
Photo courtesy: Dave Bates / SEIU