IU Health Nurse Call Labor Board Decision Good Step Toward Unionization

Nurses at Indiana University hospitals are celebrating what they hope is progress toward forming a union. 

Nurses at IU’s Methodist Hospital filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board when a fellow nurse was fired, they claim, for passing out pro-union flyers. This week the NLRB deemed the claims had merit and they would be heard by a judge.

Tiffanie Skillman, an intensive care unit nurse at Methodist, says just that the NLRB acknowledges their claim is a positive sign.

"Most people are fearful to even have this conversation in the walls of the hospital, whether they are on the clock or off the clock," she said. "They are looking around to see who may be overhearing the conversation."

The nurses held a rally Friday evening at a United Steel Workers hall near the hospital.

Skillman and others are collecting signatures in support of a union vote, which they hope to hold in about a month.

IU Health’s administration is downplaying the NLRB findings. The hospital says filing such complaints is a common union organizing tactic.

"We expect that the union will attempt to convince IU Health team members, the media and others that IU Health has been found in violation of team members’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act. This is not true," a hospital statement reads.

The hospital says in a statement it does support employee’s legal right to organize.