Injunction Granted by U.S. District Court Judge

At the request of the National Labor Relations Board, U.S. District Court Judge Christina A. Snyder has issued a temporary injunction under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act against the Hospital of Barstow. In her order, Judge Snyder ordered that the Hospital of Barstow cease and desist from, inter alia, failing and refusing to bargain in good faith with the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), AFL-CIO and from unilaterally changing unit employees' terms and conditions of employment without consent of the Union or without bargaining to an overall good faith bargaining impasse.
Under the National Labor Relations Act, an employer has a duty to bargain in good faith with the bargaining representative of its employees and to refrain from making unilateral changes to employees’ terms and conditions of employment without affording the union notice and an opportunity to bargain or without bargaining to an overall good faith bargaining impasse where the parties are engaged in negotiations for an overall contract. Following an investigation, Region 31 found that the Hospital of Barstow had not met its bargaining obligations and issued a complaint.
The temporary injunction granted Monday, July 29, 2013, by Judge Snyder in the Central District of California will remain in effect until the underlying case is fully resolved by the National Labor Relations Board. The court found that the Region’s argument was likely to succeed, that irreparable harm would likely occur if the injunction was not granted, and that the balance of hardships and public interest weighed heavily in favor of granting the injunction.