A report published in March by Columbia University’s Labor Lab finds that nursing homes in Minnesota that receive public funds through Medicare and Medicaid are more likely to use union-busting tactics, including pressure, surveillance, and discipline. The report draws from data and surveys collected over four years, and states, “We find that workers are more likely to report union avoidance tactics in facilities with larger shares of resident care financed by public funds.”
The report focuses on four Minnesota nursing homes, including one facility that is publicly owned, one for-profit facility within a larger healthcare system, one for-profit company run by a private equity chain, and one faith-based nonprofit. All four facilities were found to have engaged in union-busting tactics, including anti-union flyering, verbal pressuring of workers, and even asking residents and their families to participate in anti-union pressure. The report states that about “50% of the revenue of these companies comes from public programs like Medicare and Medicaid” and thus, “Minnesota taxpayers may be subsidizing the union avoidance activities of private employers.”
The researchers conducted interviews with workers “across a range of facilities” and found that union-busting occurs preemptively, with many workers exhibiting fear before having met with an organizer, and found that this pattern across workplaces in the industry “undermines workers’ freedom of association well before the beginning of a union drive.” The report highlights specific instances where nursing home workers from immigrant backgrounds and Black workers display fear of employer retaliation for unionization.
The report also surveyed 1,991 registered certified nursing assistants (CNA) in Minnesota, asking workers for their place of work, their assessment of unions in their workplace, and if they witnessed union-busting tactics such as employer-organized meetings and the distribution of anti-union materials. The report then states, “We find a strong, positive, and significant association between respondents’ reports of anti-union activity within a facility and that facility’s reliance on public money.”
Further, the report found that nursing home facilities “most dependent on public resources are also those in which conditions are worse for both residents and workers, and those in which workers face the most aggressive management opposition when they try to join together to push management to improve conditions.”
The findings provoked outrage among nursing home workers, concerned about public funds being used to finance anti-union tactics.
