Nurses association threatens Forum with a strike

YOUNGSTOWN — The Ohio Nurses Association has coupled its objection to Forum’s motion to void the nurses’ union contract at Northside Medical Center with a threat to strike.

The ONA’s threat was formally conveyed in its filing this afternoon in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy case of Forum Health.

“The nurses are prepared to strike rather than permit the debtors to engage in the bad faith of reneging on a tentative agreement with impunity,” the registered nurses’ union said.

“The nurses have the right to strike. Their current stoicism should not be misunderstood ... Debtors who abuse their employees take a reckless risk with the futures of their companies,” the ONA said.

The ONA complained in the filing that the union and Forum reached a tentative agreement at the bargaining table, with the nurses agreeing to all $4.4 million in concessions demanded by Forum, only to have Forum’s board of trustees later reject the agreement.

Also in today’s filing, the ONA said the motion should be denied because Forum has “unremedied violations of the collective bargaining agreement,” namely Forum’s failure to pay into the pension plan the $1,437,000 that was due April 15.

The union also argues that Forum hasn’t even tried to show the court “that it is in danger of imminent collapse; it merely seeks to stampede the court into granting partial, permanent relief from a collective bargaining agreement.”

A filing this morning by the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. estimates Forum’s pension plan is underfunded by $207,300,000. Forum seeks to terminate its pension plan and turn it over to the PBGC, which ensures pensions.

The ONA filing comes on the eve of a 9:30 a.m. Tuesday hearing in the Forum case before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kay Woods.

Forum Health, which filed for bankruptcy protection March 16, operates Northside Medical Center in Youngstown, Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland.

Forum also filed a motion to void its contract with the Service Employees International Union District 1199 at Northside.

That union also filed an objection this afternoon to Forum’s proposal to reject its contract. In its objection, the union said Forum and the SEIU have reached an agreement concerning transfer of the pension plan to the PBGC. An SEIU leader recently said that union doesn’t object to the pension transfer.

Forum and the SEIU have bargaining sessions set for Wednesday and July 22, and the SEIU said it is hopeful an agreement can be reached.