| 03/02/2005 |
| Y-NH poll: Don’t link union issue to approval of center |
| Register Staff |
|
NEW HAVEN — A recent poll by Yale-New
Haven Hospital shows a majority of New Haven area residents support
approval of the hospital’s proposed cancer center and want it
considered separately from unionization issues. The hospital
officials contend that Service Employees International Union wants
to link approval of the cancer center to unionization.
"These results clearly indicate that people in Connecticut will not tolerate having the approval of a cancer center held hostage by a labor union," said hospital spokesman Vincent Petrini. While less than 50 percent of respondents said they were aware of the proposed cancer center, the majority said the center should be considered separate from union issues. Seventy-nine percent of the New Haven residents polled said that the cancer center should be considered separate from union issues, compared with 82 percent of all respondents. The hospital poll, conducted last month by JT Wack & Co. of North Haven, included 200 New Haven area residents, nearly half of whom live in New Haven. The margin of error was less than 5 percentage points. Union officials questioned the hospital poll. The union’s own poll, conducted in September 2004, showed 79 percent of respondents would prefer to make the cancer center’s approval conditional upon the hospital officials signing a community benefits agreement. The agreement would protects workers’ rights, low-income patients, collective bargaining and the right for workers to unionize without interference by management. "The union conducted a survey which by similar margins found that most people support linking the union issue to the cancer center," said Bill Meyerson, spokesman for District 1199 of the Service Employees International Union. The union poll, conducted by Greenberg, Quinlin, Rosner Research Inc. in Washington, D.C., included 836 New Haven residents. It had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. The only unionized workers at Y-NH are the 150 food service personnel, now represented by the SEIU. That union wants to add the 1,800 employees at the hospital. Mayor John DeStefano Jr. recently said he feared the cancer center will stall unless the hospital and union sit down and agree to terms for a secret ballot election outside of the National Labor Relations Board. DeStefano has said he tends to agree with critics who feel the NLRB process can be abused to further slow unionization. He said he recognizes that the Y-NH feels deeply about using the NLRB and the union is equally committed to a different process. "Right now what I see is an impasse anywhere this issue is engaged … and that’s not good. It doesn’t deliver a cancer center and it doesn’t deliver better wages and benefits for the workers at the hospital or give them the choice to make the decision whether they need to have a union representing them," DeStefano said. |
