A nursing home accused in a federal complaint of violating the rights of its employees and a law firm that specializes in thwarting unions teamed up Friday to play a little hardball against a former "employee of the month" who was fired for engaging in union activity.
Elizabeth Lehr, a 23-year-old receptionist who was summarily dismissed April 2nd after speaking up in favor of a union at the Laurelhurst Village nursing home, is seeking unemployment benefits. The home and its attorneys, Stoel Rives, are opposing her claim.
After waiting for more than a month for a hearing, Lehr was denied her day in court Friday when a Stoel Rives attorney, Dennis Westlind, demanded that the state administrative law judge assigned to the case recuse herself because she is represented by the union seeking to organize Laurelhurst Village, SEIU Local 503.
The judge did so and now Lehr may have to wait another month or longer for a hearing on her unemployment insurance claim even though the National Labor Relations Board has determined that she was fired solely because of her support for the union. Observers called the tactic highly unusual.
In delaying Lehr's opportunity to be heard, Westlind seemed to be practicing what he preaches. Just Thursday he was one of two Stoel Rives lawyers who conducted a seminar at the firm's Portland offices to coach companies on how to defeat unions. Topics included "Effective no-solicitation policies", "What key issues make a work force vulnerable to union organizing?" and "If union organizers seek employment at your company, what can you do?"
In a complaint signed May 29 by NLRB Region 19 Director Richard L. Ahearn in Seattle, found that Laurelhurst Village, which is owned by Portland-based Farmington Centers, Inc., engaged in a flurry of illegal activity designed to thwart the union in late March and early April, culminating in the firing of Lehr.
The complaint seeks an injunction against Farmington Centers and Laurelhurst Village ordering that Lehr be returned to her job. In February, before employees started trying to organize, she had been honored by management as "employee of the month."
A hearing on that complaint has been scheduled for July 14 before a federal administrative law judge. Since Local 503 does not represent federal employees, presumably there will be no effort by Laurelhurst Village or its attorneys to have that judge recused.
The union has since filed additional charges with the NLRB seeking to have the agency order Laurelhurst Village to bargain with employees based on management's multiple violations of federal labor law.
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