After Nurse Vote, Officals Agree There Is Work to Be Done

Duke Hospital officials, pleased by a nurses vote against union representation, said they nevertheless recognized that they must act on the concerns raised in the campaign.

"I am happy that a majority chose to vote against the union, but I am also realistic enough to know that the vote is an opportunity, not an endorsement," said Michael Israel, chief executive officer of Duke Hospital. "We are committed to doing everything we can to continue to make Duke the best possible workplace it can be."

Duke nurses voted this past weekend against having Local 465 of the International Union of Operating Engineers represent them as a collective bargaining unit.

A total of 1,062 nurses voted against the union and 624 voted for union representation. There were 186 challenged votes but they are not enough to affect the outcome of the vote.

The voting will not be official, however, until it is certified by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). That process is expected to be completed next week.

Voting ended at 9 p.m. Saturday in Duke Hospital, and then the green paper ballots were counted by hand by NLRB representatives. The vote counting took about 75 minutes.

Union supporters said the vote was disappointing, but that it wouldn't discourage the effort to organize the nurses at Duke. "With a bargaining unit this size, it would have been unprecedented for it to go through the first time," said Connie Donahue, a nurse on the surgical intensive care unit the past 15 1/2 years. She said that despite the outcome, the number of votes in favor of unionization was impressive.

"This is not over," she said. "We cannot have a vote for one year. We could start gathering cards right away, but we're not going to do that. We need to give Duke an opportunity to live up to their word."

Mary Ann Crouch, the hospital's chief nursing officer, said "the work now is just beginning. This has been a very challenging time for everyone at Duke. We agree with many of the issues that staff identified. However, we know that a union could not and would not have solved them. We must focus now on the future, and work collaboratively to address the issues."

"Personally, I'd like to thank everyone who worked so hard to make sure all of the Duke nurses were fully informed before they made this important decision," Crouch said.

J. Robert Clapp Jr., hospital chief operating officer, said he was pleased that nurses decided to continue to work directly with the Duke administration "to address the issues we all face."

"Duke nurses are a key part of the care delivery team, and I sincerely believe that some of that teamwork would have been lost if they had decided to become a part of the operating engineers union," Clapp said. "I hope that we now can put this issue behind us and that all members of the Duke team again can unite toward our common goal of providing the best possible patient care."

Now that the vote is over, Donahue said supporters of the union campaign think it's time to "get down to business," and that in the next 60 to 90 days they are looking for "at least the beginning of effort" to resolve some issues.

"We want solid, working meetings with nurses who are involved from all areas, and for all of those people to work as a team," she said.

Certification of the vote by the NLRB will mean there cannot be another unionization vote by Duke nurses for a year.Written by Karen Hines.