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December 9, 2003NMH STRIKE VOTE TALLY: Union still favoredNLRB to hear objections about election processByRecord-Eagle staff writer PETOSKEY - A majority of nurses at Northern Michigan Hospital wants to stay with the Teamsters, according to a count Monday of all votes in last month's election. The tally was 288-211 in favor of continuing with the Teamsters. The Nov. 13 vote totals are not official until certified by the National Labor Relations Board. Teamsters Local 406 attorney Ted Iorio said the result was a far wider margin of victory than the union had when first installed as the nurses' bargaining agent in October 2001. That vote total was 213-185. "It's a significant signal," he said. "You would think the hospital trustees would understand now. They have a clear message now, and that's to return to the table." But hospital spokesman Thomas Spencer said the vote outcome does not change management's stance. Hospital officials have urged the Teamsters to end the strike by accepting what they called their "last, best and final offer," made a year ago. "The Teamsters have the right to represent our nurses," Spencer said. "We recognize that right, until a vote is certified by the NLRB that takes that right away." Hospital management had filed objections earlier alleging that the election had been improperly conducted. An NLRB hearing on those objections is set for Thursday in Petoskey. A final ballot count was stalled for more than three weeks after 165 nurses' ballots were contested - 136 by hospital management or working nurse Laura Hart, who petitioned for the Nov. 13 election to remove the Teamsters. Most challenges were allegations of job abandonment - that striking nurses who voted have no intention of returning to jobs at NMH. To save possibly weeks of hearings, the hospital offered to drop its challenges if the other side did, too. An agreement was struck that led to Monday's vote count at the NLRB's Grand Rapids office. Iorio said the vote count indicates support from nurses still working at the hospital. He claimed, too, that the tally of those voting to remove the union is inflated. "That includes managers and people who were clearly ineligible to vote, that the hospital had on their (eligible nurse voter) list," he said, adding that the union agreed to allow those votes because of its confidence in the outcome. Spencer said working nurses voted about 4-to-1 against the union. "That supports what we've said all along, that our nurses deserve the right to choose whether to financially support the Teamsters," he said. The Teamsters want all NMH nurses to pay either union dues or a "service fee" roughly equal to dues. No negotiations on a new contract have occurred since Nov. 14, 2002, when about half of the hospital's then-470 nurses walked off the job. The work stoppage is one of the longest uninterrupted nurse strikes in U.S. history. The striking nurses are seeking improved wages and benefits, improved patient-to-nurse ratios and a greater say in health care issues. Iorio said the union maintains its position that striking nurses will return to work if the hospital agrees to binding arbitration. Hospital management has declined the offer, saying it will not give up its management rights to a third party.
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