Union Announces $2 Million Settlement of Arbitrator’s
Union will use settlement money to support ongoing organizing effort by Hospital Workers
New
Haven, CT—On the
steps of New Haven’s City Hall, 1199 announced the multi-million dollar
settlement of an arbitrator’s award of monetary damages stemming from Yale-New
Haven Hospital’s massive violations of a union election principles agre ement.
Yale-New
Haven Hospital paid the uniontwo million dollars ($2 Million) to settle the case
,which resulted from the hospital’s actions, with violations that included
threatening employees with loss of jobs and benefits, lying about the union,
spying, and intimidating workers in mandatory meetings.
In
October 2007, Margaret M. Kern, an independent arbitrator hired jointly by
Yale-New Haven Hospital and the union, ruled that the Hospital had violated the
April 2006 agreement for the rules governing the conduct of a fair union
election. In that decision, Arbitrator Kern awarded $2.3 million in damages to
the union to compensate for election expenses, but Yale-New Haven Hospital
disputed the award.
Because
of the Hospital’s objections, the arbitration process continued, resulting today
in the payment of $2 million in monetary damages to settle the case. Kern also
awarded $2.2 million in damages, which was paid out in 2007, to the 1,736 Y-NH
employees who had been eligible to vote in the election destroyed by the
hospital’s abuses of the election principles.
New Haven
Mayor John DeStefano and other elected New Haven officials, community, and
religious leaders, who played a key role in bringing about the election
principles agreement, joined hospital employees and union leaders to announce
the settlement amount. All emphasized their strong commitment to support ongoing
organizing efforts by the workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital, the state’s
largest hospital and the second-largest employer in the New Haven
region.