SEIU Slams Health System on N.Y. Lawyers, Lux Hotel

By Tammy Daniels
iBerkshires Staff
01:08AM / Friday, February 06, 2009

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Northern Berkshire Healthcare workers dropped off an early Valentine for NBH officials on Thursday — and a plea to spend money on patients, not lawyers.

Workers at Sweet Brook Care Centers trying to join 1199 Service Employees International Union and SEIU members accused NBH of squandering "tens of thousands" on high-priced Park Avenue lawyers and Boston "junkets" at the same time it's calling for wage sacrifices by union members.

Health system officials said the specialty lawyers were needed for last week's National Labor Relations Board hearings on union organizing at Sweet Brook that were held in Boston.

"We're a nonprofit, there are very strict rules and laws on how we can spend our funds," said Diane Cutillo, vice president of external affairs. Spending has to be disclosed to a number of agencies, including the attorney general's office, she said. "We comply with the rules."

But workers said they were upset that NBH was using $500-an-hour lawyers specializing in "union avoidance" and putting up management at the luxury Onyx Hotel in Boston.

A group of NBH employees evaded security guards Thursday to deliver the Valentine to the office of Arthur Scott, vice president of human resources, as a way to speak to top management.

It said "we love our patients, please spend money on our patients and quality care and not lawyers," said Sweet Brook employee Melinda "Mindy" Gulotta, who's worked at the nursing home for a total of nine years. "We want the home atmosphere back at Sweet Brook. It doesn't feel that way to us, it's more like a money maker."

The health system has been trying hard to plug a $4.5 million budget gap for next year through salary, position, supply and other reductions. On Tuesday, North Adams Regional Hospital announced the elimination of approximately four full-time positions that will affect an unknown number of full- and part-time employees.

NBH employees are escorted off the grounds of North Adams Regional Hospital by security after delivering a message about their unhappiness with NBH's actions regarding unionizing at Sweet Brook Care Centers and spending on lawyers and a hotel for hearings on the matter.

Hospital officials say they have to cut the jobs because its two unions, the Massachusetts Nurses Association and 1199 Service International Employee Union, rejected its proposal for overtime and other changes that would save upwards of $650,000.

SEIU "offered a very generous proposal that opened pre-existing labor contracts which included wage freezes, reduction in overtime benefits and more flexibility for manangement around staffing issues," said SEIU spokesman Jeffrey Hall. "These offers would have negated any need for service reductions."

While Hall said the union had proffered a written proposal some time ago, Cutillo said no formal, written plan was offered until Tuesday afternoon. The hospital rejected it Wednesday night because the offer did not meet the "fairness principle" of shared sacrifice nor address so-called "legacy benefits" from past contracts, such as recognizing overtime at both more than 8 hours in a day and 40 in a week, she said.

(Nonunion and administrative workers have accepted salary and merit freezes and some 20 positions have been cut.)

Cutillo said SEIU had not responded to a counterproposal by late Thursday afternoon.

The union and management had been before the National Labor Relations Board to hammer out which positions at Sweet Brook will be allowed to vote on joining the union. Hall said NBH was trying to prevent more workers from voting by redefining their positions as supervisory; Cutillo that NBH was trying to make sure all employees were fully informed so they can make the right decisions for themselves.

Most of the talks were held in Boston, and a few days in Leominster after requests were made to move them closer to Western Mass. Administrative staff required to attend the talks were put up at the Onyx (which listed room rates starting at $143 a night this week); at least one staffer commuted.

Cutillo said the hospital does not have attorneys on staff, as does the union, so had to hire labor specialists: "we are not experts on running union elections." Epstein, Becker & Green PC is a national law firm that includes labor and employment among its "boutique" practices.

"Caregivers at the hospital and residents of the community share an expectation that patient-care dollars are going to be spent on the things the hospital needs to deliver quality patient care," said SEIU local President Michael O'Brien in a statement. "It is unfortunate and troubling to learn that Northern Berkshire Healthcare executives may have betrayed that public trust."