(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . St. Peter’s Health consultant documented nurses home life, incentives and union sentiment – Daily Montanan [1] ['Nicole Girten', 'More From Author', '- October'] Date: 2023-10-04 A leaked internal document at St. Peter’s Health listed intimate details of nurses’ home lives, incentives at work, notes about disciplinary records, personality types and likeliness to join a union, according to a redacted copy obtained by the Daily Montanan on Wednesday. Union consultants hired by the hospital prior to a nurses’ vote on whether to unionize — including one described as a “union-buster” by a labor group — compiled the information in the document. St. Peter’s Health declined to comment Wednesday on the administration’s role in collecting the information contained in the document, but internal emails obtained by the Daily Montanan indicate leadership shared said information with the consultant. After the internal leak, St. Peter’s ended its union consultant contracts and apologized to nurses. However, nurses did not take this apology as sincere, a union leader said Wednesday. St. Peter’s employs an estimated 1,700 people according to their website, including about 360 nurses. Later this month, the nurses will vote on whether to join the union, the existing Montana Nurses Association Local #13, and the move follows national momentum of unions across the country advocating for better pay and benefits. But one expert and labor researcher says the employer practice of hiring union consultants to break up efforts is also deeply woven into America’s history. At St. Peter’s, the leaked document listed individual nurses, their roles, and included notes on their feelings toward unions. Some nurses at St. Peter’s are already a part of a union; this current effort is a collective of nurses from both the hospital and clinics looking to join the existing union with some changes to adjust for differences between the hospital and clinics. The document included nurses’ voting history with the union and history paying union dues. The document also stated whether they could be persuaded to vote against the unionization effort, or if they were a solid vote either way. It listed whether they were considered leaders, or had a “strong personality,” and if they’ve talked to others about unionizing efforts, both in support and opposition. Additionally, the document included details such as whether they had children, went to appointments regularly and needed flexibility, who they were married to, internal disciplinary notes, how they are perceived by others in the organization, as well as their work history. When describing a nurse with children, the document said, “flexibility could be leveraged.” The document said others could be persuaded to join the union with the promise of more money, noting for at least one nurse “$$ is a driver for her.” LaborLab previously filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor under the Labor Management Relations and Disclosure Act on the hospital hiring one consultant, Niles Commer, saying he violated disclosure rules. However, St. Peter’s earlier said the Labor Department had issued no adverse findings. The hospital also described Commer as a labor educator, although it also had referred to multiple union consultant contracts being terminated. An email obtained by the Dailly Montanan shed light on the way the document came together and ended up in the public eye. The document, marked “Attorney/Client Privilege,” was saved by accident to a shared drive, where it was “able to be accessed by individuals it was not intended for,” said St. Peter’s Health President Todd Wampler in the email to nurses obtained by the Daily Montanan on Wednesday. Wampler said the document contained “short-hand information that, taken out of context, could be perceived as cryptic, insensitive or hurtful.” “In the course of these conversations, information was shared by our leaders about the types of individual exceptions we have made to accommodate employee schedules, life situations and personal challenges,” he said in the email. “This flexibility around personal circumstance is exactly what may be at risk for our team members in a typical union agreement.” “Unfortunately, this information was never intended to be shared beyond the leaders and the consultant, and was appropriately marked as ‘Attorney/Client Privilege,’” he said. Wampler said the mistake could not be undone and requested nurses in possession of the document to destroy it. Nurses made the decision to consider joining the union after hospital executives modified the personal leave cash-out policy from 100% to 70% for all employees, said Robin Haux with the Montana Nurses Association, in an email to the Daily Montanan. Prior to the cut, nurses were able to cash out up to 80 hours, twice a year, at 100% of any employee’s current hourly pay, she said. Haux told the Daily Montanan nurses don’t believe the administration’s apology was sincere or that it is taking responsibility. She said the nurses believe Commers didn’t personally know 71 nurses working in the clinics, but the administration did know the personal details included in the document. Since the leak, Haux said more nurses and community members have added their names to the petition to unionize, now at 1,000 signatures. It supports the nurses’ effort to unionize and asks the hospital to “invest in nurses, not consultants.” Unions across the country have been out in force, like the recently ended Writers Guild of America writer’s strike, auto-workers in Michigan and most recently workers at Kaiser Permanente health facilities Writers got many of their demands met in a recently negotiated contract, ending their strike. Kaiser Permanente unionized workers walked off the job Wednesday after a failed round of contract negotiations, in what the New York Times reported may be the largest healthcare strike in recent U.S. history. University of Montana Social Sciences Professor Daisy Rooks said although unions have increased momentum, anti-union efforts have been consistent in certain industries. “But anytime you see an upsurge of efforts to unionize, you’re probably, in the United States, going to see an upsurge of employer efforts to prevent it,” Rooks said. She said healthcare has become an arena for unionization in the past 20 years. “Just because of how much money there is and how frustrated everybody is about healthcare,” she said. Unions have shown strength in Montana recently, with two Missoula Starbucks voting to form a union earlier this year, and at least one in Butte last year, according to reporting from the Missoulian. Efforts to pass “Right to Work” legislation, considered anti-union, have routinely failed in Montana, with union members coming in numbers to testify in opposition. Rooks said Montanans have long made efforts to unionize, going back to extraction industries, but this sentiment of organized labor has extended to other industries with lots of employees. “I see it as really a continuation of a really rich, interesting tradition in this state,” Rooks said. 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