On March 11, Judge Jeremy Fogel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued his decision siding with the hospitals’ position regarding the non-existence of SEIU Local 715, a union which previously represented approximately 1,450 employees at Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
The judge found that SEIU-UHW had taken on, or had attempted to take on, all of SEIU Local 715’s representational duties some time in 2006 (without our employees’ consent), that SEIU Local 715 had ceased to exist as of March 1, 2007 when it was merged into SEIU Local 521, and that the hospitals could have properly refused to recognize the union as of that date.
We feel this it is important for all Stanford and Packard Children’s Hospital employees to understand that this ruling confirms that the hospitals acted in a completely appropriate and lawful way when we suspected SEIU Local 715 no longer existed, stopped payment of dues to the union (which were held in a trust and returned to employees) and finally withdrew recognition of the union last summer. In fact, the court agreed that beginning in March 2007, when the organization ceased to exist, that it had effectively abandoned our represented employees.
Although we could have withdrawn recognition of SEIU Local 715 long before we did, we did not take such action without long and thoughtful consideration. We are pleased that Judge Fogel’s decision acknowledged our right and duty to protect our employees and their right to vote for any change in representation.
We thank you for your commitment and dedication to Stanford and Packard Children’s Hospitals and want to remind you that we are committed to protecting the best interests of all of our employees—regardless of union representation.
Please continue to visit our website at: www.StanfordPackardFacts.com for more background information on the ruling or feel free to contact a member of the Employee and Labor Relations Team with questions at: (650) 723–6251.
