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October 15, 2003NMH STRIKE: Nurses can vote on union by mailVote will occur sometime before Nov. 14ByRecord-Eagle staff writer PETOSKEY - Striking Northern Michigan Hospital nurses working elsewhere can vote by mail on whether to retain the Teamsters union as bargaining representative, the National Labor Relations Board ruled. In a letter dated Tuesday to attorneys for both the hospital and Teamsters Local 406, NLRB regional director Stephen Glasser said the geographical scattering of striking employees warranted the decision. "Not allowing these employees a fair opportunity to vote by mail would arguably cause them to be disenfranchised," Glasser wrote. Teamsters attorney Ted Iorio applauded the NLRB's decision, and criticized both hospital officials and working nurse Laura Hart, who petitioned for a union decertification vote, for opposing mail-in ballots. "They know these nurses are scattered everywhere," Iorio said. "Why would they try to disenfranchise them?" Hart did not return a telephone message seeking comment late Tuesday afternoon. Hart earlier said she opposed mail-in ballots because they were not used in the original election that installed the Teamsters as bargaining representative, in October 2001. Hospital spokesman Thomas Spencer said management's concern is preserving the integrity of the election process. "We are concerned that many nurses have left town, have relocated and have no intentions of ever returning to the hospital," he said. "Certainly those that intend to return to work here should have a vote in the process, but those who do not intend to return should not have a vote." Glasser said Tuesday the NLRB has not yet determined an election date, but will sometime this week. The vote will occur before Nov. 14, the one-year anniversary of the strike, he said. That date is important because after a year, striking nurses would no longer be eligible to vote. The election will include local polling places for those nurses still in the area to cast votes. Iorio predicted nurses will vote to retain the Teamsters as bargaining representative by an even wider margin than in the first election, when the union was installed by a 213-185 vote. He noted that more nurses went on strike Nov. 14 than voted for the union.
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