Regular Freedom@Work readers may remember the Foundation's ongoing efforts to help Houston nurses fight back against a coercive organizing scheme hatched by Tenet Healthcare Corporation and the California Nurses Association union bosses. We're pleased to report that the Foundation's charges have forced union officials to stop their illegal and coercive organizing efforts at two area hospitals. Not only that, but independent nurses have filed a union decertification petition at a third location. From the Foundation's press release:

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, nurses at the Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center have filed a decertification petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to remove an unwanted union from their workplace.

The nurses’ decertification petition comes on the heels of the California Nurses Association (CNA) union’s decision to withdraw its controversial petitions for unionization at the Park Plaza and Houston Northwest medical centers. Hospital employees became increasingly disillusioned with union officials after many nurses raised concerns about conflict in the workplace and the quality of patient care.

For more info, check out the Foundation's interview with two Houston nurses:

Federal Labor Board to Prosecute Tenet Healthcare for Scheme to Sweep Nurses into Unionization

Employees seek to throw out union after union bosses’ ugly campaign of harassment and coercion

Houston, Texas (April 3, 2009) — National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) prosecutors have filed a complaint this week against Tenet Healthcare Corporation after it entered into a backroom deal with union officials designed to force nurses into union ranks at multiple Houston-area hospitals.

With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, two Houston-area nurses, Esther Marissa Cuellar, a nurse at Tenet’s Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center, and Linda D. Bertrand, a nurse at Tenet’s Park Plaza Hospital and Medical Center, filed unfair labor practice charges alleging that an “Election Procedures Arrangement” (EPA) Tenet and California Nurses Association (CNA) union officials secretly established violates employees’ rights.

The unfair labor practice charges also allege that Tenet officials provided CNA union operatives with unlawful organizing assistance in violation of federal statutes: In Tenet healthcare facilities, outside union organizers are given free reign to aggressively push for a union presence; but Tenet nurses who oppose unionization, on the other hand, are forbidden from using Tenet facilities to express their views.

(Continue reading this news release...)

Regular Freedom@Work readers may remember the Foundation's ongoing efforts helping nurses fight back against the California Nurses Association (CNA) union's coercive organizing drives at Houston and Philadelphia-area healthcare facilities.

Now an employee at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia has again stepped forward, filing unfair labor practice charges against Tenet Healthcare Corporation for giving CNA operatives preferential access to company property for the purposes of union organizing. Previous Foundation unfair labor practice charges also allege union organizers are engaging in illegal prerecognition bargaining: in exchange for company assistance, union officials may have agreed to terms and conditions of employment on behalf of workers they don't even have the power to represent yet.

Here's a copy of the Foundation's unfair labor practice charges (.pdf). And here's a link to the Foundation's video on coercive CNA organizing in Houston.