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Hospital must fire 73 nurses says arbitrator
May 25, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

The collective bargaining agreement between a hospital and its nurses union contained a standard "union security" clause. Individual nurses were required to pay dues to the union. If they refused, then the hospital was obligated to discharge them.

Seventy-three nurses didn't pay. The hospital didn't fire them. So the union took the matter to arbitration.

The arbitrator ordered the hospital to fire the nurses, as the contract required. He also ordered the hospital to pay the nurses' overdue fees and dues.

The hospital refused to implement the award, so the union took off in two directions:

NLRB unfair labor practice

The NLRB ruled that it was an unfair labor practice for the hospital to refuse to fire the nurses. The hospital argued that firing the nurses would violate public policy. The 8th Circuit enforced the NLRB decision, finding that there was no statute forbidding a discharge of nurses on the ground that they had not paid union dues, and finding that state law did not require the hospital to maintain any specific number of nurses on its staff. St. John's Mercy Health Systems v. NLRB (8th Cir 02/01/2006).

Suit to enforce the award

The 8th Circuit again got this case when the union sued to enforce the award. Applying standard analysis to the review of an arbitrator's award, the court enforced the award. The same public policy argument was made and rejected.
UFCW v. St. John's Mercy Health Systems (8th Cir 05/24/2006).

My view: The 8th Circuit got it right both times. A contract is a contract.

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