Kadlec settles unfair labor practice charge

The Washington State Nurses Association filed four unfair labor practice charges against the hospital between March 1 and August 2, 2024. The cases were later consolidated into a single complaint. 

After an investigation involving interviews and sworn statements, Region 19 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found sufficient evidence to formally charge Kadlec with violating federal labor law by interfering with nurses' protected union rights and discriminating against employees because of union activity. 

Kadlec agreed to settle the case before a trial was held in front of an administrative law judge. The case was officially settled on April 21, 2026. 

Under the settlement, Kadlec agreed to remove disciplinary actions from the nurses' files and to post a notice for 60 days informing employees of their rights under federal labor law. 

"Nurses were telling us they were being retaliated against for union activity, and we couldn’t let that continue," said WSNA Nurse Representative Laurie Robinson. "This case shows the facility continued these behaviors until it was forced to change."

The settlement ended a lengthy and stressful process for the nurses involved. 

One nurse took over as local unit chair in 2020 and served on the Conference Committee, Workplace Violence Committee, and Hospital Staffing Committee, where nurses frequently clashed with management over staffing and working conditions.  

This nurse began working at the hospital in 2014 and had not been disciplined or received a patient complaint until 2023. 

Between June and November 2023, the nurse was called into investigatory meetings over an alleged lack of documentation for a patient and two clashes with co-workers, which were not documented. She was also issued a final written warning involving a patient complaint, the last step before termination. Kadlec did not document these allegations. 

In a column "You didn’t win, and now, I finally get to tell my story," the nurse called the ordeal "the worst harassment I have ever experienced in my life."

In April 2024, a bargaining team member requested an extra shift on her unit. After the shift was assigned to another employee, the nurse emailed human resources multiple times, raising concerns that the extra-shift assignment process was not being followed. Within a month, the nurse was called into an investigatory meeting that led to a documented verbal disciplinary action. 

Beginning in February 2023, a nurse repeatedly filed assignment despite objection (ADO) forms over a "co-caring" staffing model being piloted on the surgical unit that used virtual nurses to help provide patient care while assigning bedside nurses up to six patients on the day shift.  The model was not in violation of the hospital staffing plan at the time, but the nurse told management that the plan was unworkable. Management responded that it would work and that nurses simply needed to work through it. When this nurse later requested a transfer on Feb. 24, 2023, it was denied because of "negativity."

Specifically, the NLRB formally charged Kadlec with the following: 

• Kadlec interfered with, restrained, or coerced employees in exercising rights protected under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, in violation of Section 8(a)(1). 
• Kadlec discriminated against employees regarding the terms and conditions of employment in a manner that discouraged union activity, in violation of Sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(3) of the National Labor Relations Act. 

By reporting this behavior and seeing the investigative process through to its conclusion, these nurses were ultimately vindicated.