American Medical Response, Inc. - Decision Summary

American Medical Response, Inc. (32-RC-5234, 32-RD-1450; 344 NLRB No. 161) Livermore, CA Aug. 17, 2005. The administrative law judge overruled SEIU United Healthcare Workers West’s Objection 3 alleging that the failure to provide the Employer’s critical care transport registered nurses (RNs), who are professional employees under the Act, with a Sonotone ballot warranted setting aside the mail ballot election held from February 23 through March 16, 2005. Sonotone Corp., 90 NLRB 1236 (1950). Contrary to the judge, the Board found that the election failed to comport with the requirements of Section 9(b)(1) of the Act. It sustained Objection 3, set aside the election, and directed a third election. The tally of ballots showed 848 for National Emergency Medical Services Assn. (NEMSA), 580 for SEIU, 19 against the participating labor organizations, and 90 challenged ballots, an insufficient number to affect the results of the election.

The judge concluded that a Sonotone ballot was not necessary based on the assumption that professional employees need only have one opportunity to vote on inclusion in a mixed professional/nonprofessional unit. However, that assumption is inconsistent with the Board’s decision in Westinghouse Electric Corp., 116 NLRB 1545, 1547 (1956).

Here, the election was held in a unit that, contrary to Section 9(b), combined professional employees with nonprofessional employees without affording the professionals an opportunity to vote whether they wished to be included in such a unit. The Board therefore directed elections in the following separate voting groups, one consisting of all RNs and the other consisting of all other nonprofessional unit employees. As set forth in Sonotone, the RNs will be asked the following two questions on their ballots:

(1) Do you wish to be included with nonprofessional employees in a unit for the purposes of collective bargaining?

(2) Do you wish to be represented for purposes of collective bargaining by National Emergency Medical Services Association; by SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, Service Employees International Union; or by neither?

If a majority of the professional employees vote “yes” to the first question, their vote on the second question will be counted with the votes of the nonprofessional employees to decide which union, if any, shall be the representative for the entire combined bargaining unit. If the RNs do not vote for inclusion, their votes on the second question will be separately counted to decide whether they want either of the Unions on the ballot to represent them in a separate professional unit. Similarly, the votes of the nonprofessionals would be separately counted to decide whether they want either of the Unions on the ballot to represent them in a separate nonprofessional unit.

In light of the Board’s disposition of SEIU’s Objection 3, it found it unnecessary to rule on SEIU’s request for review of the Regional Director’s overruling of its Objections 1 and 2.