Hospital Seeks to Restrict Unionizing, Appeals NLRB Case to Supreme Court

Beth Israel Hospital, a Harvard teaching affiliate, is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling that the hospital could not ban pro-union solicitation in its cafeteria.

The Court has not yet decided whether it will hear the case.

The ruling rose out of an unsuccessful unionizing drive at the hospital last year during which Beth Israel administrators warned employees that they would be disciplined for promoting unionization in the cafeteria, which is open to ambulatory patients and patients' friends.

Last winter workers voted against representation by Local 880 of the Massachusetts Hospital Workers Union.

The hospital administration's actions interfered with employees' rights to have a place to organize, Donald Marrow, supervisory attorney for the NLRB in Boston, said yesterday. He added that the cafeteria is primarily for employees.

Unhealthy Radicalism

However, employees arguing in the cafeteria for unionization might shake patients' confidence in the hospital, Dr. Mitchell T. Rabkin '51, director of Beth Israel, said Tuesday.

"You can't unionize in the corridors of a department store," Rabkin added.

The U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston in June upheld the NLRB ruling in favor of Local 880. But in a similar case in St. Louis, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled broadly that a hospital should be allowed to limit pro-union solicitation to areas where patients are not present, an official of the American Hospital Association said Wednesday.

The St. Louis decision reversed an NLRB ruling.

The NLRB is appealing to the Supreme Court to overturn the St. Louis decision, but the court has not yet decided whether it will review either that decision or the Beth Israel decision to eliminate the discrepancy between them.

Joseph Rosman, manager of the hospital association's department of employee relations and training, said the two cases have set precedents in hospital labor law. Congress did not bring hospitals under the jurisdiction of the NLRB until 1974.

Rosman said during unionization drives employees discussing the issue can become involved in "fairly hot arguments" that might upset patients.

However, Marrow said, the NLRB did not think union supporters would interfere with patient care in their discussions.