In recent years, unions representing employees in health care facilities have engaged in activities during contract negotiations to pressure employers into settling, while limiting the cost of engaging in strike activity in the form of lost wages to union employees. The two most common forms of such activity used by unions are informational picketing, and short, sometimes intermittent, strikes, usually lasting only a day or two.

Informational Picketing

Informational picketing is yet another issue on which the NLRB has recently overturned precedent, in this case favoring union rights over patient rights and health care institutions’ property rights.

Typically, informational picketing is done by employees on their own time, either before or after their scheduled shifts and/or during their break times, or by non-employees. Thus, the picketing does not involve an actual work stoppage. Nonetheless, it can be disruptive of health care operations, involving noise, distraction, and perhaps physical interference with movement in and out of the affected institution. The NLRB’s long-standing rule on informational picketing balanced the employees’ right to picket against the needs of patient care and held that a hospital may lawfully prohibit on-premises picketing by both employees and non-employees. Thus, the noise and distraction of the picketing would usually be held at locations far removed from areas where patients, their families, and on-duty caregivers were located, such as public sidewalks at the entrances to driveways or parking lots.

This past August, the NLRB, in its decision in Capital Medical Center and UFCW Local 21, 364 NLRB No. 69 (August 12, 2016), overturned its long-standing rule and held that hospitals now have the burden of showing that a rule prohibiting on-premises picketing in non-patient care areas is necessary to avoid disruption of health care operations or disturbance of patients. The NLRB noted that such a rule would be examined on a case-by-case basis, and the Board clearly indicated that the measurement of disruption would take into account the actual conduct of the pickets. This ruling will make it extremely difficult for an employer to determine in advance whether a ban on on-site picketing would violate the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”).

The activity in Capital Medical Center involved two employees standing outside the main lobby entrance holding picket signs. They were not patrolling or chanting. The NLRB found that such on-premises picketing did not lose the protection of the NLRA. The Board’s ruling makes clear that the facts of this case are not the outer limit of what behavior would stay within the protection of the NLRA. For example, there is no clear explanation of an employer’s right to restrict informational picketing, particularly as to exterior locations, such as building entrances or parking lots. Employers should note that this decision does not apply to non-employee pickets nor does it apply to picketing by striking workers.

Takeaways (Informational Picketing)

Health care employers facing potential informational picketing should, well in advance, identify the areas both inside and outside the institution that are sufficiently close to patient care areas that any form of picketing, even if peaceful, would disturb patients or disrupt patient care, and amend rules accordingly. A record of the facts supporting such a rule should be made at that time. In addition, if, during the course of informational picketing, the conduct of the pickets becomes disturbing to patients or disrupts patient care, health care employers should collect evidence supporting that conclusion and take steps to stop the disruptive behavior.

Capital Medical Center has petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for review of the Board’s decision and the Board cross-petitioned for review, so watch for future developments on this issue.

Short-Term Strikes

Unions representing health care employees have frequently used one- or two-day strikes against hospitals and other health care institutions as a way to force the target institution to give in to unions’ bargaining demands or spend millions of dollars in replacement workers and other preparations to ensure proper care for their sick patients, while the strikes have minimal impact on the wages of the nurses or other health care workers who only lose a day or two of pay.

These strikes typically involve serving a notice under Section 8(g) of the NLRA that tells the institution that the employees will be on strike for a single 24-hour period and includes the employees’ unconditional offer to return to work at the end of that period. This forces the institution to scramble to find qualified temporary replacement workers, vet them, train them, and orient them. In order to do so, the institution typically needs to contract with the replacement workers for at least five days and at significant expense. Once the strike is over, often nothing has been resolved and the parties return to the table only for the union to threaten to engage in another short-term strike.

According to current case law under the NLRA, work slowdowns, partial strikes, and intermittent strikes are not permitted; therefore, employees who engage in them are not protected and may potentially be disciplined or discharged. The reason for this long-standing policy is clear—while employees should be free to withhold their labor as economic leverage, they should not be able to do so without any risk or sacrifice. For that reason, “quasi-strikes” (strikes that are “intentionally planned and coordinated so as to effectively reap the benefit of a continuous strike action without assuming the economic risks associated with a continuous forthright strike, i.e., loss of wages and possible replacement”) have not been entitled to protection under the NLRA.^[1] Therefore, unions have been hesitant to call more than one or two of these short strikes during any single labor dispute/negotiation because of the potential that the third or fourth short strike would be considered intermittent and unprotected under the NLRA.

In October 2016, the General Counsel (“GC”) of the NLRB issued an Operations-Management Memorandum to Regional Directors and others acknowledging that unions and employees “are more frequently engaging in short-term strikes” and seeking to “clarify and modify the law regarding intermittent and partial strikes” to address concerns that employees face “potential discipline for activities that should be considered protected under Section 7 of the [NLRA].”

The GC Memorandum instructs the NLRB’s Regions to take action to again put their thumb on the scales in favor of unions. Specifically, the GC Memorandum instructs Regions litigating this issue to utilize an Intermittent Strike Brief Insert that advocates for a loosening of the standard to sanction any intermittent or short-term strikes that:

1. “involve a complete cessation of work” (as opposed to a slowdown or partial work stoppage);

2. “are not designed to impose permanent conditions of work [i.e., weekend only strikes, refusal to work overtime, etc.], but rather are designed to exert economic pressure; and

3. the employer is made aware of the employees’ purpose in striking.”

If this position is accepted by the NLRB and the courts, unions would be free to conduct as many short, intermittent strikes as they desired so long as they called for a complete walkout and they informed the employer what end they were seeking to achieve by striking. Such a ruling would result in the increased use of such tactics.

Takeaways (Short-Term Strikes)

At this point, no decision has been reported based on the GC’s argument. Nevertheless, health care employers should be aware of the NLRB’s position and watch for further developments. Unions representing health care workers are aware of the GC’s published instructions to the Regional Directors and likely will be looking to test this theory. Employers should prepare accordingly. While contingency planning is definitely a must, employers may also be able to take advantage of certain bargaining strategies designed to mitigate the impact of these union tactics.

^{[1] WestPac Electric, 321 NLRB 1322, 1360 (1996).}