After negotiations that had dragged on since May, culminating
in a near-strike, nurses on Pill Hill voted last month
to accept the offer given them by Oregon Health Sciences
University.
Now, however, some nurses at OHSU feel the talks were
compromised by a personal relationship between two negotiators.
WW has confirmed that Linda Pesanti, a negotiator
for the nurse's union, lives with Ann Logan, one of
the administration's negotiators--a fact that some nurses
say was not widely known during the talks.
"Most people I spoke to were surprised and astounded,"
says nurse Gary McMillan, who opposed the contract.
"Had that information been given to everyone, it might
have changed the vote."
In early November, most employees at OHSU expected
a nurses' strike. Then, a final mediation session produced
an unexpected breakthrough: The administration sweetened
its offer--slightly. The leadership of the Oregon Nurses
Association endorsed the new proposal, and on Nov. 13,
by a margin of 488 to 314, the nurses voted to withdraw
their strike notification and accept the offer.
Given the large number of nurses who opposed the deal,
it's hardly surprising that some of them are grumbling
about the contract. But in recent weeks, the dissidents
have focused their attention on what they see as too
cozy a relationship between the union and the administration.
"It's a very big deal," says nurse Michael Harpole,
who also opposed the contract. "I think it's a conflict
of interest. I think it's wrong. It feels like the nurses
are fighting the administration and our own union."
It's unclear how many nurses knew about the relationship
between Pesanti and Logan before the vote. It's also
unclear how much other negotiators knew about the relationship.
Neither of the women agreed to speak to WW, and
neither the union nor the administration would comment
on any aspect of the relationship, including the question
of when they became aware of it.
What is known is this: Both women sat at the bargaining
table with their respective teams. Pesanti, who is president
of the Hill's ONA chapter, is one of 10 nurses who advised
chief union negotiator Ken Fitzsimon; Logan is one of
six nursing managers who advised chief OHSU negotiators
David Blair and Pat Boose.
Representatives of both sides vehemently deny that
any kitchen-table talk affected the deal.
"The makeup of any negotiating team is always diverse
and frequently includes nurses, managers and administrators
who know each other well, barely know each other, dislike
each other intensely, and are close friends," says OHSU
spokeswoman Marlys Pierson. "The makeup of the individual
team is only important if one does not understand anything
about how the process works."
The deal was "absolutely not" affected by the relationship,
agrees Fitzsimon. "Negotiations were difficult for a
variety of reasons, but none of them was personal."
Some expert negotiators say there are no hard-and-fast
rules about such situations. "What really matters is
if the constituents of both of these people are comfortable
that they are sitting on both sides of the table," says
veteran firefighters union negotiator Randy Leonard.
"At first blush, I would be less concerned if they were
not the chief negotiator."
Other negotiators, however, say the scenario makes
them uncomfortable. "We would not permit that in our
bargaining relationship," says Richard Garrett, president
of the Portland Association of Teachers. "I think it
raises real questions about the ability of the teams
to fulfill their responsibilities. It obviously raises
real questions of conflict of interest."
Because the negotiations were being brokered by a mediator,
the two sides had not actually sat at the same bargaining
table for several months. But the key issue, experts
say, is not so much playing footsie under the table,
but the possibility that one side could discover the
other side's real bottom line and exploit that knowledge
in the talks.
"It's an obvious conflict for both sides," says David
Shaff, employee relations manager for the city of Portland,
who cautioned that he was not familiar with all the
details of the case. "There needs to be an arms'-length
relationship, otherwise people will put an overlay of
impropriety and say there must have been something going
on. Even if that's not true, you still give the appearance
of impropriety.
"I wouldn't do it," he adds. "I would never put the
city in that position."
There's no evidence that either woman disclosed anything
improper, but news of the relationship has stoked suspicions
among some rank-and-file nurses that the ONA caved in
by accepting the administration's final offer. "A lot
of us were upset that the ONA kind of folded on us,"
says another nurse who opposed the contract.
These feelings of abandonment have been sharpened by
the fact that for several years, Logan served on the
union's negotiating team, until she was promoted last
year and crossed over to the management's team.
Fitzsimon remains firm in his defense of the union's
conduct. "I don't really have any comment about how
it looks," he says. "I just know how it was. Some nurses
were disappointed with the contract, but we acted ethically
and responsibly."
Dissident nurses are now circulating a petition to
remove Pesanti and chief union negotiator Fitzsimon
from their positions with the union.
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Willamette Week | originally
published December 1,
1999
