Philadelphia, PA (January 28, 2010) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Philadelphia nurse has filed federal charges challenging an attempt by her employer and outside union organizers to ignore the results of a workplace election rejecting unionization.

Joanne K. McGovern is a registered nurse employed by Hahnemann University Hospital, a medical facility owned and operated by Tenet Healthcare Corporation. McGovern and her hospital coworkers recently endured a prolonged organizing drive, during which union operatives from the California Nurses Association (CNA) union and its local affiliate, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) union, attempted to impose unionization on hospital employees.

Despite a backroom deal between the CNA union and Tenet that suppressed employee opposition to unionization and granted union organizers preferential access to hospital facilities, the nurses voted against the CNA in June 2009.

Undeterred by this setback, union lawyers have turned to private arbitration and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to block the certification of this result, claiming that CNA organizers were intimidated during the organizing drive.

Although the NLRB has yet to rule on these claims or even hold a hearing, hospital and union officials recently agreed to disregard the election results anyway. In November 2009, the CNA union and the hospital announced plans for a new unionization election despite the fact that the NLRB has not invalidated the results of the last workplace election.

McGovern’s charges challenge the legality of this move, arguing that workers who have already voted should not be subjected to repeated elections until they submit to unionization. The charges will now be investigated by the NLRB.

“After getting roundly rejected by Hahnemann nurses, union officials just won’t take no for an answer,” said Patrick Semmens, director of legal information for the National Right to Work Foundation. “By attempting to stifle hospital workers’ votes against unionization, CNA bosses have shown that their real goal is pushing nurses into the union’s forced dues-paying ranks, like it or not.”