The ruling also flags a grievance meeting mistake HR teams need to watch for
A federal appeals court gave employers more room to act after a decertification vote – and caught a grievance meeting mistake.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled on March 18 that a Kansas City hospital did not break federal labor law when it stopped recognizing a union immediately after employees voted to decertify it, even though the National Labor Relations Board had not yet formally certified the election results.
The case centered on Midwest Division-RMC, LLC, which operates as Research Medical Center, an acute care hospital that had maintained collective bargaining relationships with two unions since 2010. One of them, Service Employees International Union HCII, Missouri/Kansas Division, represented the hospital's technical, service, and maintenance employees. The other, National Nurses Organizing Committee-Missouri & Kansas/National Nurses United, represented registered nurses.
On June 14, 2021, the ballot count in the decertification election was held. With 203 votes against SEIU, 171 in favor, and 13 challenged ballots, employees chose to end union representation. That same day, the hospital's chief executive, Ashley McClellan, emailed and posted a statement announcing the result. In the months that followed – and before the NLRB formally certified the election in February 2022 – Midwest pulled recognition of SEIU, halted dues deductions, refused to bargain over PRN...
Two Canada-based steel companies, Farjess Inc. and Royal Canadian Steel Inc., along with their part-owner and president, Feroz Jessani, have agreed to pay $19 million to resolve allegations that t...