PeaceHealth Southwest settles unfair labor practice charge for calling police on members
WSNA argued that the employer’s conduct unlawfully intimidated workers and interfered with their protected rights.
April 16, 2025 • 2 minutes, 53 seconds to read
PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center settled an unfair labor practice filed by the Washington State Nurses Association after the hospital called police to report the union’s representative and an off-duty nurse as trespassers in October 2023.
WSNA argued that the employer’s conduct unlawfully intimidated workers and interfered with their protected rights. The union also argued that PeaceHealth Southwest violated the law when it unilaterally limited access to the property for off-duty nurses and their union representatives and threatened a union member who accessed the while she was off the clock, telling her “things will not go well” for her if she didn’t leave the premises.
Region 19 of the National Labor Relations Board found merit to those charges and approved a settlement agreement in March 2025.
As part of the settlement, PeaceHealth must post a notice on employee bulletin boards making specific commitments to follow federal labor law. They must also post the notice on the hospital’s intranet site for 60 days and send it by email to all employees.
The notice, listed below, includes language telling employees that the hospital cannot intimidate them or threaten them.
“Calling the police to report a union rep and an employee doesn’t just violate the law; it also needlessly escalates a non-emergent situation, potentially endangering them and everyone around them,” said Kelly Skahan, a lawyer for WSNA. “WSNA is relieved this incident ended peacefully and that the hospital is being held accountable for intimidating workers and making them fear for their safety.”
The incident occurred during a significant labor strike. More than 1,300 healthcare workers represented by the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals went on a strike that lasted from October 23 to Oct. 27, 2023.
PeaceHealth is a nonprofit Catholic health system that operates 10 hospitals and approximately 167 clinic locations across Washington, Oregon, and Alaska.
Region 19 of the National Labor Relations Board also found merit to a separate charge WSNA filed during OFNHP’s strike after PeaceHealth announced that it would discontinue its contributions to striking employees' health insurance premiums, effectively ending their coverage, if the work stoppage extended into November. PeaceHealth did not settle that charge, and a hearing is scheduled for Nov. 12.
The following notice posted at the hospital makes six specific commitments to follow the law, each of which corresponds with a charge filed in WSNA’s unfair labor practice case.
THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO:
- Form, join, or assist a union;
- Choose a representative to bargain with us on your behalf;
- Act together with other employees for your benefit and protection;
- Choose not to engage in any of these protected activities.
WE WILL NOT interfere with, restrain, or coerce you in the exercise of the above rights.
Washington State Nurses Association is the representative of our employees in the following unit for dealing with us regarding wages, hours, and other working conditions (“Unit”):
All regular full-time, part-time, per diem, and relief registered nurses, including home care, hospice, wound care and pain clinic registered nurses, employed by the Medical Center at the following Vancouver, Washington facilities: Medical Center campus currently located at 400 N.E. Mother Joseph Place, Memorial campus currently located at 3400 Main Street, Memorial Health Care Center currently located at 100 East 33rd Street, Administration Building currently located at 602 N.E. 92nd Avenue, HomeCare/Hospice currently located at 5400 MacArthur Blvd, Pain and Cardiology Clinics currently located at 2312 NE 129th St and Ray Hickey Hospice House currently located at 2112 East Mill Plain Boulevard; but excluding CRNAs, coordinator CRNAs, QM Coordinators, lead employee health nurses, employee health nurses, clinical educators, all other employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
WE WILL NOT unlawfully threaten to call the police to remove you or Union representatives from the hospital when you have permitted access to the hospital.
WE WILL NOT threaten that it will not go well for you if you do not leave, when you lawfully come to the facility where you work, whether on or off duty, to lawfully engage in protected concerted or Union activity.
WE WILL NOT unlawfully tell you that you will be allowed to enter the facility where you work to post on Union bulletin boards only if you are on duty and only if you are escorted by management.
WE WILL NOT unlawfully call the police to remove your Union representative from facilities where you work.
WE WILL NOT change your working conditions by barring off-duty employees from entering the facility to engage in Union activity, without first providing your Union with notice and an opportunity to bargain. “
WE WILL NOT in any like or related manner interfere with your rights under Section 7 of the Act.