Labor Relationships
Sutter Health's physician organizations, hospitals, home health and other service providers have nearly 60 locally negotiated collective bargaining agreements with 17 different labor unions. Of our network’s 48,000 employees, about 13,700 (less than one-third) are represented by these unions.
Sutter Health’s Position on Organized Labor
Sutter Health respects the right of employees to decide for themselves whether or not they want to be represented by a labor organization and, if so, which one. We believe that all employees should be able to make fully informed decisions and exercise freedom of choice through the secret ballot and democratic process established by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Where relationships with labor organizations are in place, Sutter Health-affiliated hospitals bargain locally and in good faith with the goal of providing their employees with economic security and a rewarding work environment while focusing on improving the value of our services to consumers – the same goals they strive to achieve for non-union represented employees.
Current Labor Status
Labor Sponsored Misinformation or “Corporate” Campaigns
Frustrated with a lack of success in attracting new members through traditional organizing approaches, many labor organizations across the nation engage in negative campaigns of misinformation against employers. These are referred to as corporate campaigns. Such campaigns are intended to disparage the reputation of an employer with the goal of forcing an organization to agree to specific union contract demands or to allow a group of employees to be represented by a union without utilizing democratic NLRB election procedures.
The California Nurses Association Labor Union
A number of Sutter Health-affiliated hospitals have contracts with the California Nurses Association labor union, and CNA contracts are in active negotiations. For the latest updates visit: sutterhealthblogs.cnanegotiations. Current actions by CNA union leaders provide a timely example of a corporate campaign. The CNA seeks to force unionization of all registered nurses in the proposed new Cathedral Hill Campus of Sutter-affiliated California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) in San Francisco. Rather than pursue a democratic election through the established practices of the National Labor Relations Board, the CNA union is waging an aggressive campaign that includes:
- Actively opposing CPMC’s rebuilding plans
- Opposed (unsuccessfully) a new Sutter hospital construction project in Oakland
- Opposed (unsuccessfully) the replacement of Sutter-affiliated Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley
- Opposed (unsuccessfully) the replacement of Sutter-affiliated Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa