Region 20-San Francisco Wins Injunction Against Satellite Healthcare, Covering 11 Facilities in the Bay Area

On December 23, 2024, United States District Judge Rita F. Lin of the United States District Court of the Northern District of California issued an injunction order requiring Satellite Healthcare, Inc. (the Employer) of Vallejo, CA to reinstate an employee, restore its established practice of granting annual wage increases to employees, bargain with the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (the Union), rescind all unilateral changes to employees’ terms and conditions of employment, and post, text, and read aloud a Board notice to all employees.

This remedy affects over 200 employees at 11 Bay Area facilities, which provide dialysis treatment options and kidney transplant support. The Court’s Order provides this relief pending a final decision by the National Labor Relations Board on the underlying administrative complaint.

The injunction was issued based on a petition for temporary injunctive relief filed by Region 20-San Francisco Regional Director Jill H. Coffman under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which authorizes the Board to seek injunctions against employers and unions in federal district courts to stop unfair labor practices and ensure that employees’ rights will be adequately protected from a failure to obtain appropriate remedial action due to the passage of time. The petition, filed in November 2024, alleged that the Employer engaged in unlawful activity, including discharging an employee for engaging in protected activity, failing and refusing to bargain with the Union, unilaterally changing the employees’ terms and conditions of employment including rescinding annual wage increases, and making threats against engaging in union activity.

The injunction is a significant legal victory that will help restore the Union’s bargaining power as it continues bargaining for an initial collective-bargaining agreement and will prevent irreparable harm from occurring as a result of the Employer’s “repeated and flagrant violation of the Act.”

“We are thrilled with this outcome,” said Region 20 Regional Director Coffman. “This injunction is a critical step in protecting employee rights to organize and ensuring employers follow the law when their employees decide to select a union as their bargaining representative. This ruling will restore the Union to the position it would have been in the absence of Satellite’s unlawful conduct, prevent irreparable harm to the bargaining process, and protect the public interest in enforcement of the National Labor Relations Act.”

Established in 1935, the National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects employees, employers, and unions from unfair labor practices and protects the right of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve wages, benefits and working conditions. The NLRB conducts hundreds of workplace elections and investigates thousands of unfair labor practice charges each year. Region 20 serves areas in California, Hawaii, and Northern Mariana Islands from its Regional Office in San Francisco and Subregional Office in Honolulu.