Hospital Still on the Hook for Busting Nurses’ Union

(CN) - Avanti Health Systems cannot overturn an injunction related to alleged union-busting at its newly bought California hospital, the 9th Circuit ruled Monday.

The National Labor Relations Board won an injunction against Avanti in February after claiming that the company refused to recognize or bargain with the California Nurses Association at Community Hospital of Huntington Park, an acute-care hospital located in Huntington Park, Calif. Avanti purchased the bankrupt hospital in 2010 and argued that it did not have to deal with the CNA because the union did not represent a majority of the hospital's registered nurses.

The NLRB claimed that, as a successor employer, Avanti had to recognize the union under the National Labor Relations Act. It presented evidence that 30 of the hospital's 47 registered nurses belonged to the union, or about 63 percent. The board and the union also claimed that Avanti made the absence of a union a condition of purchase, according to the ruling.

U.S. District Judge Otis Wright granted the NLRB a preliminary injunction in Los Angeles, finding that it was likely to succeed on the merits of its case. Avanti appealed to the 9th Circuit, but a three-judge panel of judges affirmed unanimously from Pasadena on Monday.

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