Adventist Institution votes to go Union, and goes Bankrupt

[Gregory Matthews]

For the story of the Adventist Nursing Home that voted to go union in 2003, and it going bankrupt, see:

http://www.adventistreview.org/2005-1509/news.html#3

[Gregory Matthews]

Here is the story in brief:

In 2003 the employees at the 120 bed Hyde Pard Nursing Home in Staatsburg voted to join Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union. contract negotiations between the Union and management broke down, and the employees authorized a strike in 2003. A second strike authorization was voted in 2004, in regard to attempts to sell to a company.

The Nursing Home is being purchased by a company whose President is currently the Nursing Home Administrator. The company has signed a contract with the Union. The expectation is that present employees will continue on, and the NH will seek a better financial picture.

In 2003 it operated at a loss around $650,000 and about $750,000 in 2004. With labor problems settled, the thought is that management can persue a higher class of reimbursable patients, and an increased number.

Questions:

Is this the first SDA institution to go Union?

Is this the wave of the future?

How did SDA adminisrators respond to labor issues?

To what extent was the decision of the Greater New York Conference to sell the NH due to the fact that it had gone Union?

[NormF]

• Another seemingly important question to ask is how many of those employees were SDA members? And a second like it, how many members of management - mid-level and upper - were SDAs? Know that and it is possible for a lot of other answers to come out of the answers to those two questions.

------------

but let's get down to the real nitty-gritty ...

Even more relevant than that, a third question to ask is how do those who are SDAs act? After all, Meri Kay Silver was an SDA, among SDAs, employed by SDAs. Lot of good that did her. Same with lots of others I know, including some very close to home for me.

Recall too that for years, precious few of the employees of Porter Memorial Hospital in Denver, for instance, were SDAs. My understanding is that Porter management also was/is much the same. And that is anything but atypical of many SDA institutions.

Boil it all down, and I think the real question is not who are they, but how does management behave? There's no need to even think about unionizing when management does it's job right. Whether it's an SDA institution, Wal-Mart, or any other business, what matters is what management does. (Forgive the non-Adventist expression, but Sam Walton must be spinning in his grave now!) Nothing's changed - the biblical injunction prohibiting the muzzling of oxen treading the grain, and the observation that a workman is worth his hire, are as true as ever.

And let me also point out that

• grain = a good deal more than just $$, or perks

... things like attitude, consideration, involvement, and so on.

Regards,

Norm

[Gregory Matthews]

1) The SDA Church leaves it up to the individual to decide whether or not to join a Union. With the passage of time, more of our members are joining--and at a time when fewer people join in society.

2) There are not enough SDAs to fill all positions in health-care institutions. In the metro area where I live, to include the hospital where I work, there are not enough RNs to fill all the positions. Some local hospitals will pay a $5,000 fee to any employee who delivers a RN to them for employement.

[NormF]

Dear Gregory,

Curious that unionism is attracting more SDA's. Where do the figures come from? And I wonder why they're joining?

I mentioned Porter Memorial from personal past history - that's where my wife was getting her clinical training when she took her RN major at Union College, and where I showed up a-courting. (Hey, you can't hunt ducks in the desert!) She never latched onto one of those $5,000 bonuses, though we sure knew about them. Nursing was good to Marlene though, with or without a bonus. (She's since retired from the field.)

As for percentages of SDA employees, I think Porter, like most SDA health institutions, has perenially had this problem of finding qualified SDA's to fill the availabilities ... which underscores the importance of good management. Management in cases like this can't appeal very effectively merely to religious loyalty to achieve their objectives; most employees weren't/aren't SDA's to begin with.

On the observation elsewhere on the site regarding management machinations in the bankruptcy/takeover process ... it's well to remember that if the mind of man can conceive of it, it can probably be done, if it hasn't been already. If blaming unionization will suit someone's purposes, it can be done, and often is. As for this case, I know nothing of the details yet, yea or nay. It's just that regardless of the outcome and its why's and wherefore's, I'm not likely to be surprised by whatever happens, or it's final why.

On the other hand, am I curious? Well, yes. (It must rub off from having two cats!)

Regards,

Norm

[Gerr]

One of the biggest problems in the health care industry is that most of the reimbursements are fixed. However much they or I would like to pay their/my employees, they/I can't pay more than what's coming in.

Gerry