Know Your Rights

As healthcare workers stand together and reset the power dynamic at our hospital, there are several federally-protected rights that we have that our employer cannot violate. If management or HR DOES violate one of these protected rights, we have the right to file a charge with the National Labor Relations Board, an arm of the federal government. These are known as unfair labor practice charges. 

Our rights under the law include: 

• Right to talk about the union openly with our coworkers (Rule of thumb: If you can talk about what you had for dinner last night, you can talk about the union.) 
• Right to wear union insignia (buttons, pins, stickers, lanyards, etc.)
• Right to post and distribute union flyers and newsletters
• Right to collect petition signatures in non-work areas and during non-work times

Management may not retaliate against any of us for exercising our rights, for instance by: 

• Threatening you for your union activity
• Spying on you while discussing the union
• Disciplining you in any way
• Interrogating you about your union activity
• Promising you better treatment in exchange for not supporting the union
• Forcing you to attend anti-union meetings or discuss the union with management 

These examples would constitute a violation of your rights and could result in an unfair labor practice charge. 

Why would management even try to violate our rights? 

Hospitals run anti-union campaigns because they know they will have to negotiate with staff when they form a union. 

Management does not a get a vote and they cannot stop us or any of our colleagues from forming a union. Their only chance at maintaining their status quo - where they have most, if not all, decision making power - is to convince us that voting to have a seat at the table is not in our best interest. 

What does an anti-union campaign look like? 

When hospital administrators find out that healthcare professionals are talking about organizing a union, the usually hire expensive management consultants whose entire job is to stop us from organizing. At Einstein Main, instead of investing in patient care, management spent $10 MILLION on anti-union consultants but still failed to stop the nurses from unionizing. The whole goal of these ant-union consultants is to convince healthcare workers that they don't need a seat at the table. 

Management hires these folks because they know that when we come together we have the power to make them address the issues we care about. As long as we stay united and informed, there is NOTHING THEY CAN DO TO STOP US!