ADVANCING VOLUNTARY LEADERSHIP IN A CHANGING WORLD 0 P Y Chamber of Commerce of the United States LEGISLATIVE ACTION GENERAL MANAGER 202 659-6140 1615 H STREET, N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20006 September 6, 1972 Honorable Harrison Williams, Chairman Subcommittee on Labor Labor and Public Welfare Committee United States Senate Washington, D. C. 20510 Dear Mr. Chairman: Attached is a statement expressing the views and recommendations of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States on H.R. 11357, a bill to amend the National Labor Relations Act. We will appreciate your consideration of these views and request that the statement be made a part of the hearing record. STATEMENT on H.R. 11357 AN AMENDMENT TO THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR SENATE COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE for the CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES by 0. F. Wenzler * September 6, 1972 The Chamber of Commerce of the United States appreciates this opportunity present our views in opposition to H.R. 11357 a bill to amend the National Labor Relations Act. to - The National Chamber is the largest federation of business and professional organizations in the United States and is the principal spokesman for the American business community. Representing more than 3,500 trade and professional associations and state and local chambers of commerce, and a direct membership of more than 44,000 business firms, the National Chamber has an underlying membership of more than five million individuals and firms. H.R. 11357 is, in terms of its language, a simple bill. It would extend coverage of the National Labor Relations Act to nonprofit, nonpublic hospitals, by removing from the Act language which presently exempts such hospitals from coverage. Simple as this change of language may be, the problems its passage would create are complex. The nonprofit, nonpublic hospital industry constitutes by far the largest segment of the total hospital industry. Of the 7,123 hospitals in the United States, 5,859 are short-term, general medical and surgical care hospitals. Of this group, 3,386 are nongovernmental, not-for-profit hospitals. Less than 15% of the total are for-profit hospitals and the remaining numbers are operated by various federal, state and local governments. Clearly, when the average citizen needs regular, short-term, medical or surgical care, the institution most often providing that care is the nonprofit, nongovernmental hospital. It is an understatement to say that H.R. 11357 would affect the cost and the availability of health care services to nearly every American. * Labor Relations Manager, Chamber of Commerce of the United States 86-073 O 72 18 - 2 Congress has recognized the unique character of the nonprofit hospital by granting it an exclusion from the National Labor Relations Act and not subjecting it to the labor-management philosophy and national labor policy which was designed for the private industrial sector. The nonprofit hospital, unlike private industry, is not run for the benefit of any group of investors who expect to receive a return on their investment. The issues of economic competition between labor and management which underpin our national labor policy do not exist in the nonprofit hospital. Accordingly, it would be a mistake to impose regulations based on that competition on this critical service industry. Objections to Bill The basic objections to this bill are that it would add substantially to the health care costs of all Americans at a time when those costs are already skyhigh, and it would impose obligations and duties on hospitals which are ill-suited to their special needs. The National Chamber does not oppose the legitimate interests of employees of nonprofit hospitals. Quite the contrary. We strongly support fair and responsive employee relations as an essential facet of any employment relationship, whether regulated by the National Labor Relations Act, or exempt from that Act. Only through such an enlightened approach to employee relations can the nonprofit hospital provide in full measure the crucial life protecting services for which it is intended. Additionally, good personnel practices attract better employees and insure a willing and able staff, one which can realize its primary obligation to provide humanitarian health care services and is not burdened with the petty problems and complaints which restrictive and arbitrary policies would bring about. Higher Costs A hospital is a labor intensive operation; there are around three employees for every patient. Many critical patient care operations cannot be mechanized. The impact of union demands for higher wages and fringe benefits can only be an increase in health care costs to the patient as a hospital is unable to significantly reduce costs by increased automation. In addition, hospitals would face new administrative costs in bargaining with unions, responding to union charges in administrative and court proceedings, and administering new work rules contained in union contracts. - 3 Strikes and Other Work Stoppages The basic elements of the collective bargaining process are strikes, picketing and work stoppages These "weapons" have no place in health care service where life and death situations are faced daily. Hospital services are at least as important as police and fire protection and ought to be available without interruption. Recognition picketing, legal under the NLRA, may cause substantial harassment to a hospital. In addition, illegal secondary picketing activities pose a larger threat to hospitals. Under present law, employers are unable to seek injunctions to stop such picketing and the NLRB is unable to respond rapidly enough when a union violates the Act's prohibitions against secondary boycotts, jurisdictional strikes, picketing and the like. The delay involved while waiting for the NLRB to act may have little lasting impact in an industrial situation. In a hospital, it may be critical, both to those already in the hospital and to those who look to the hospital for care. The Act has no adequate provisions for resolving bargaining impasses, relying instead upon the economic weapons of the strike. While this may be acceptable in the industrial situation, it is an unconscionable burden to place on hospitals where critical services may be affected by any strike. The specter of a hospital being turned into a morgue because of a strike is all too real, regardless of the protestations of union leaders that they would never engage in strikes. In fact, hospital unions have called strikes, even where specific laws regulating hospital labor relations specifically bar them. If this happens when strikes are illegal, what would be the inhibiting factor if strikes are legally protected? This is an intolerable bargain and cannot be permitted. If H.R. 11357 is to become law, at the very least there must be some protection afforded to the general public in the form of a prohibition against strikes of any kind in hospitals. NLRA in Need of Revision At present the National Labor Relations Act, and the body of decisional law evolving from it, contains many gross inequities affecting those industries already covered by the Act. To extend these inequities to any other industry not |