A regional office of the National Labor Relations Board has overruled McLaren Macomb Hospital's objections to a union election in which workers at the Michigan facility chose to join the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 40, union and hospital officials confirmed.
The decision resulted in the formal certification of the August election, which involved about 330 nonprofessional service workers at McLaren Macomb in Mount Clemens.
McLaren Macomb, a 288-bed tertiary teaching hospital, had raised objections to conduct during the election with the labor board's office in Detroit.
The Detroit Region 7 office ruled that the 172-113 vote for unionization was valid, and the hospital appealed the earlier decision to the labor board's Region 16 office in Fort Worth, Texas, seeking to invalidate the election, according to Crain's Detroit Business.
But on Dec. 9, the NLRB's regional director in Fort Worth overruled objections to the union vote.
"We are thankful that the labor board has fully rejected McLaren's attempts to undermine our decision to form a union at the hospital," lab assistant Jaclyn Shannon said in a union news release. "Now it is time for McLaren to respect our vote and come to the bargaining table so we can address the important issues that are affecting employees and patients and begin making improvements."
The union said it delivered a letter to the hospital's CEO Dec. 11, demanding that the hospital begin negotiations and provide available bargaining dates.
Shela Khan Monroe, McLaren Healthcare Corp.'s vice president of labor and employment relations, said the Region 16 decision was expected, and the hospital is considering a request for review of the region's determination by the full National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C.
"The hospital's original request for board review of Region 7’s initial decision to include technical employees [in voting] is still pending, which could nullify [the Dec. 9] decision. The board's review will be the final determination in this matter as to whether certification of the union by Region 16 will stand," Ms. Monroe told Becker's Hospital Review in a statement.
The hospital added that it will honor and abide by the full NLRB's final decision, "so we can move forward to foster the best environment for care at McLaren Macomb."
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