While still in the middle of an organizing campaign at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, New Jersey, the New York State Nurses Association stepped in to defend the rights of RNs laid off through the illegal closing of the hospital’s inpatient psychiatric unit. Somerset administrators suddenly closed the unit on October 24, 2003.

“This unit also happened to employ some of NYSNA’s strongest supporters,” said Marvin Moschel, assistant director for organizing of NYSNA’s Economic & General Welfare Program. “More than a dozen RN jobs were lost, with the administration claiming in a memo to staff that it closed the unit because the census was low and the RNs were providing care that was below par.”

NYSNA contacted the New Jersey Department of Health (DOH). In its initial reply to a DOH inquiry, hospital administrators claimed the unit was still open, but DOH inspectors conducted a surprise visit and found the unit closed. As a result, the New Jersey Health Department charged the medical center with violating state law by closing its psychiatric unit without permission from the state, and without adequate justification, fining the hospital $5,000 a day, retroactive to October.

NYSNA then confirmed through inside sources that the RNs on the psych unit were indeed fired because they were union supporters, and learned that the medical center offered some psych nurses a severance package on the condition that they not speak about the issue. Based on unfair labor practice (ULP) charges by NYSNA, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is investigating the firing of one pro-union nurse leader, as well as the closing of the psychiatric unit. A third charge has been filed over threats by the hospital to fire RNs who vote or campaign to unionize.

NYSNA has also contacted the American Nurses Credentialing Center-the organization that grants magnet status-informing them of these events. In theory, a medical center with magnet status has an ideal work environment for RNs, and an applicant’s history of labor relations is an important factor in granting or withholding magnet status. By filing ULPs with the NLRB, NYSNA has put the magnet designation process on hold.

Meanwhile, the medical center’s physicians have asked for the chief executive officer’s resignation over the closing of the psych unit. “The pressure is really on medical center administration now,” Moschel said. “The RNs are standing up for themselves, letting them know that there must be improvements in working conditions and that this must happen through collective bargaining.”