Key Facts About the Legal Review Process
We are hearing questions from our APP colleagues about the legal review process involving the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and why Essentia is unable to begin bargaining. We want to provide you with key facts about this process and why a work stoppage will not speed up Essentia’s bargaining of a first contract.
Why isn’t Essentia Health bargaining a first contract for Advanced Practice Providers?
Allowing the unit to proceed as currently proposed by the MNA would pose serious concerns about access to care in the communities we serve. It would also run contrary to the NLRB’s own Health Care Rule, which lays out in detail the proper structures to separate hospital and clinic staff for the purposes of collective bargaining. These rules and procedures are intended to preserve access to patient care.
Here’s what you need to know about the legal process:
- Based on a careful review of case law and precedent, Essentia cannot begin bargaining without completely waiving its legal right to continue its appeal of this decision.
- We will adhere to the legal process to ensure everything is done correctly, given the long-term implications.
- It is simply untrue that Essentia could begin the bargaining process now while the legal review process plays out. Both can’t occur at the same time.
As a reminder, the last word from the NLRB’s regional office came on May 14 when they withdrew a complaint and hearing notice, signaling the importance of a careful and full review from the NLRB in Washington, D.C., on this important matter.
While we wait for the NLRB’s decision, we look forward to continuing to work together as a team to advance our mission and provide high-quality, compassionate care for our patients.
Understanding the NLRB’s Healthcare Bargaining Unit Rule
We maintain our belief that the NLRB’s Region 18 decision to allow the MNA’s petition to move forward to election as a single voting unit of 400+ East Market APPs is a significant departure from the NLRB’s own long-standing Health Care Rule, approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991.[1]
For more than three decades, the NLRB’s Health Care Rule has defined healthcare bargaining units in acute care hospitals and specifies that, for purposes of collective bargaining, acute- and non-acute care units should be separated.
To our knowledge, Essentia’s case is the first time the NLRB has issued such a decision in which the NLRB abandoned its own standard defined in its Health Care Rule to separate acute care and non-acute care groups for the purpose of collective bargaining.
We continue to strongly believe that the Health Care Rule applies in this case, and that the NLRB’s Region 18 decision to hold an election as a single voting unit is a major departure from the NLRB’s long-standing application of its own Health Care Rule.
[1] https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/who-we-are/our-history/1974-health-care-amendments