Opinion ID: 397209
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Particular Statutes Applicable to Health Care Institutions

Text: 6 At this point we must explain the statutory framework that guided the actions of both parties in this dispute. A prEecis of the legal context is essential to understand the rather confused events that followed Langford's notice to the FMCS. 7 In 1974, Congress amended the National Labor Relations Act to bring nonprofit private health care institutions under its coverage. 3 Recognizing that labor disputes at a hospital might threaten the continuity of patient care, 4 Congress created special rules for the health care industry. 5 First, Congress added a notice provision to help resolve the breakdown of initial negotiations. 6 When initial contract negotiations do break down, the parties are required to give the FMCS and any local mediation authority 30 days notice of the existence of a dispute. 7 8 Second, Congress required the FMCS to become actively involved when it learns that the parties cannot reach agreement. The FMCS may arrange meetings to restore or create bargaining relations, and the parties are required to attend. Alternatively, in more serious situations the FMCS may invoke the newly-enacted section 213, 8 the critical statute in this case. 9 Section 213 provides that if the FMCS finds that a threatened strike would disrupt local health care substantially, it may, within ten days of receiving the thirty day notice that initial bargaining has collapsed, convene a Board of Inquiry. The Board of Inquiry is charged with looking into the dispute, making a report, and submitting suggestions to the parties on how to reach accord. The Board of Inquiry must complete its report within fifteen days after it is established. In addition, from the time the Board is convened until fifteen days after it issues its report, the parties must maintain the status quo that existed before impasse. 10 Third, Congress created a new limitation upon strikes in the health care industry. 9 A union must give ten days notice to the FMCS and the hospital before it may strike or picket. This provision allows a hospital to avoid disruptions of patient care. Moreover, when a party has sent a thirty-day notice to the FMCS that initial bargaining efforts have failed, a union may not serve a ten-day strike notice on a health care institution until the thirty days have elapsed. Thus, a cooling-off period is imposed on the parties to allow the FMCS mediation efforts to proceed in an atmosphere free from coercion.