St. Francis nurses vote down union

In the end, it wasn't even close.

After a two-year campaign, registered nurses at St. Francis Medical Center overwhelmingly voted to reject the proposal to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 655.

Of the 387 registered nurses at St. Francis, only 76 voted yes, with 281 voting against joining the St. Louis-based union. Fifteen of the votes were challenged, and 15 others didn't vote.

St. Francis president and CEO Steve Bjelich said he was pleased with the outcome.

"Our registered nurses made a strong statement," he said, noting that there was a 96 percent turnout. "It's been a long process and I'm glad it's over."

But union organizer Nick Trupiano said he thought the lopsided vote was questionable. Trupiano declined to elaborate, but said he would be consulting with union lawyers.

Bjelich said any concerns the union has should be directed toward the National Labor Review Board, which oversees union-management relations.

Trupiano said some of the pro-union nurses were a bit shaken.

"It's like a prize fight," he said. "After you lose, your thoughts aren't together."

Voting closed at 9 p.m. Friday at the 264-bed Catholic Cape Girardeau hospital with the final results becoming public about an hour later. The election is expected to become final sometime next week after a period for filing objections.

Bjelich said he was glad to move on.

"All of the nurses are part of the St. Francis Medical Center family," Bjelich said, echoing a theme he has repeated throughout the last week. "Like any family, from time to time there's conflict and ours is no exception. Now it's time to move on."

Pro-union nurses had said severe staffing shortages have hurt the quality of care at St. Francis. While they acknowledged a national nursing shortage, they have said they thought a union could get the nurses better pay and benefits, which would draw more nurses and keep them from leaving for higher-paying jobs.

But that sentiment apparently was not nearly as strong as the organized anti-union nurses who maintained that they'd rather deal directly with management than pay others to do it.

The union had gotten 30 percent of the RNs at St. Francis to sign blue cards initially that said there was union interest at the hospital.

Anti-union registered nurse Rob Greyhek said he was relieved.

"I'm glad the voting process is behind us," he said. "But it did take courage for people on both sides to stand up. Both sides stood for what they believed in. But it's time for all sides to come together as a cohesive unit."

Pro-union nurse Janet Casper said it was a hard loss to take.

"We really worked hard for this," Casper said. "We really wanted it to go. There's still a lot of hard feelings that need to be put to rest."

Casper said she didn't know if the pro-union nurses would continue to organize, but she said she hoped the vote served as a slight wake-up call to hospital administrators.

"We still have nurses saying 'Hey, there's a problem,'" she said. "Nurses on both sides were saying that."

Bjelich said he hopes time will help heal the wounds and added that the hospital will continue to address issues as they arise, something he feels has been going on all along.

"We all want St. Francis to be the best it can be," he said. "We may disagree on the best way to get there, but we all have one common goal. I feel good about the victory, but I'm just as concerned about where we go from here."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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