Opinion ID: 3210755
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Pre-Election Period

Text: The unionization drive began around June 2010, when Elizabeth Heedles, the Administrator of the facility, announced that Somerset would be reducing working hours and changing employees’ schedules. Several nurses, including Sheena Claudio, Shannon Napolitano, and Jillian Jacques, were concerned about the new schedules they were asked to follow. One of the supervisory nurses, Jacqueline Southgate, who would become a key witness for the Union, was also troubled that her full-time schedule was to be downgraded. Somerset emphasizes that, prior to the announced scheduling changes, the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services conducted a survey of the facility in December 2009 that resulted in two citations for violations of state standards.1 As the ALJ later characterized the violations, “[t]he surveyors did not believe that a patient’s pain was adequately controlled by the nurse assigned to her care.” (J.A. 12.) Somerset suggests that the poor survey “resulted in increased scrutiny on the Somerset nursing department” and led it to begin revamping its operations to improve care. (Opening Br. at 8.) The ALJ, however, disagreed and saw the 1 Specifically, Somerset received two “G” ratings for pain assessment. A “G” rating indicates that the error is “isolated in nature,” but that the resident received “actual harm.” (J.A. 3039.) 5 survey violations as routine, suggesting that Somerset’s characterization was a post hoc pretext for anti-union actions. According to the ALJ, it was “common” for a facility to be cited for deficiencies, and, in this case, Somerset “corrected the deficiencies within a couple of weeks after receiving the report, and submitted a written plan of correction in late December 2009,” which the state accepted. (J.A. 12.) A state recertification survey in January 2010, just a month after the original survey, found that Somerset was in substantial compliance, though the survey report did recommend a 27day $200-per-day penalty for the December violations. Whatever the motive for the operational changes at Somerset, they prompted concern among the nurses. Jacques responded by contacting CareOne’s Vice President of Human Resources, Andrea Lee, who promised to “look into it.” (J.A. 10.) Lee visited the facility, met with several nurses, expressed surprise about the large-scale changes, and promised to continue looking into it. She did not, however, follow up with the nurses any further. Consequently, they made contact with the Union and met with Union organizer Brian Walsh in late June 2010. Claudio, Napolitano, and Jacques then began speaking about the Union with their colleagues at Somerset and generated interest from several other nurses, including Southgate, Valerie Wells, and Lynette Tyler. They prepared a pro-Union YouTube video, distributed and collected Union authorization cards,2 held meetings at employees’ homes and 2 Although a Board-supervised election is “[t]he most commonly traveled route for a union to obtain recognition as the exclusive bargaining representative of an unorganized 6 at a local diner, and organized employees to wear pro-Union stickers. Their campaign culminated in a July 22, 2010 petition for a union election submitted to the Board by nurses Jacques and Napolitano and organizer Walsh. The Union then circulated to Somerset’s employees a pro-Union brochure with photographs of 35 employees, including Claudio, Jacques, Napolitano, and Wells. Somerset acknowledges that “Napolitano, Claudio, and Jacques were among the leaders in the Union organizing campaign.” (Opening Br. at 9 (citing J.A. 1673).) Just over a week after the union petition was filed, CareOne’s regional director, Jason Hutchens, brought Doreen Illis into Somerset to replace Heedles as Administrator. Illis was transferred from a substantially larger CareOne facility, and Heedles took over at the facility that Illis left. The ALJ expressed doubt that Heedles was shifted for reasons of effectiveness, noting that she was transferred to lead a facility with double the number of beds, and that CareOne was aware of the disenchantment with the scheduling changes at Somerset. Somerset made other management changes in group of employees,” an alternative way for a union to establish majority support is “possession of cards signed by a majority of the employees authorizing the union to represent them for collective bargaining purposes.” NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., 395 U.S. 575, 596-97 (1969). A union that collects authorization cards for a majority of employees can thus claim to be the exclusive bargaining representative for employees pursuant to § 9(a) of the NLRA, 29 U.S.C. § 159(a). Claudio, Napolitano, and Jacques were distributing that type of card to fellow nurses, though ultimately a union election was held. 7 August 2010, including bringing in Inez Konjoh as a replacement Director of Nursing and giving Southgate management responsibilities.