An arbitrator has ruled that Yale-New Haven Hospital must pay $4.5 million to a labor union and hundreds of workers for interfering in an election that would have allowed employees to organize.
District 1199 of the Service Employees International Union called off the election last December after the hospital was cited for violating the terms of a fair election agreement as a condition for the city’s approval of a new cancer center.
In her decision Tuesday, independent arbitrator Margaret Kern says the hospital ruined any chance for a fair election by intimidating union supporters and spreading misinformation. She ordered the hospital to pay the union $2.3 million to cover organizing expenses and $2.2 million to the 1,700 hospital employees who were eligible to vote.
A hospital spokesman says Yale-New Haven may challenge the figures, but recognizes it made mistakes throughout the campaign.
