AN Ohio Nurse who spoke out for rights has won a defamation verdict against the hospital which sacked her.
Ann Wayt, a 38-year veteran registered nurse with a ‘spotless record’ who was illegally fired and then defamed in retaliation for her outspoken patient advocacy and support for her union, was awarded more than $2 million in damages in a defamation suit against the hospital – one of the most notorious anti-union hospital chains in the country, according to the National Nurses United (NNU).
The unanimous verdict against Affinity Medical Center of Massillon, Ohio – which after firing Wayt also sought to have her nursing license revoked – took the eight-person civil jury less than two hours of deliberation after nearly two weeks of testimony.
Affinity is operated by Tennessee-based Community Health Systems chain.
While the verdict was a major victory for Wayt and the Affinity nurses, it also shows the need to strengthen and reform labour laws because workers continue to be fired and retaliated against for speaking out for their right to join a union.
Wayt was fired in 2012, shortly after Affinity nurses voted to join National Nurses Organising Committee-Ohio (NNOC-Ohio), a state affiliate of NNU.
Wayt’s attorney, Brian Zimmerman, told jurors that the hospital’s actions were meant to send a message to union supporters and damaged Wayt’s reputation in the industry.
He said she had continuously received glowing evaluations, provided outstanding patient care and won nursing excellence awards before her sudden suspension and termination.
NNOC/NNU Co-President Malinda Markowitz, RN, praised Wayt for ‘standing up for herself, her family and her colleagues against the harassment and attacks by a multibillion-dollar corporation on their right to form a union’.
Markowitz added: ‘This verdict is a clear signal that working people can resist, fight back and win against even the most heavily funded attacks by those like the Koch brothers and other far right groups and their agenda to eliminate unions, laws that protect workers and public advocates for public safety and economic and workplace justice.’
Wayt said she fought back not just for herself, but ‘for Affinity nurses and nurses everywhere who are fighting for their right to stand up for patients’.
She continued: ‘Now they see that nurses are strong and we stick together. We aren’t going to accept their bullying.
‘I am so very thankful for all of the support of my colleagues through this very trying time. We stuck together and we prevailed.’
The decision came more than two years after Wayt was fired, and a year after US District Judge John Adam delivered a sweeping cease and desist injunction ordering Affinity to reinstate Wayt and end a broad array of behaviour in illegal discipline and harassment of its RNs, as well as refusing to bargain with its RNs and their union.
Wayt – a prominent union supporter in the hospital’s orthopedics unit, where union support was ‘particularly strong’, as a National Labour Relations Board Judge Arthur Amchan later noted – was directly targeted, as symbolised by the decision of the hospital to begin an investigation against her on the very day of the election.
Affinity management then trumped up charges of patient care misconduct that Amchan termed in July 2013, ‘a pretext to retaliate against her for her union activity’ despite a long ‘spotless’ record as an RN.
Affinity not only fired Wayt, it then went to the Ohio Board of Nursing attempting to pressure it to revoke Wayt’s nursing licence.
Judge Amchan also wrote: ‘It is hard to imagine a more effective coercive message to the union supporters … than the termination of a long-term employee with no (or no known) prior disciplinary record.’
After the February 6 verdict, Affinity RN Debbie McKinney said: ‘Ann has shown that one nurse can hold a healthcare system accountable for its lies and deceptions.
‘This should empower all nurses to stick together for what is best for our patients, ourselves and our profession.’
• The AFL-CIO union federation announced on Thursday: ‘During Black History Month, we will be profiling past and present leaders in the intersecting movements to protect and expand the rights of African Americans and working families.
‘We’ll highlight both important leaders of the past and those who are continuing the legacy of those strong leaders who laid the foundation for the present.
‘Today, we take a look at members of OUR Walmart. Courageous members of OUR Walmart have been standing up against the world’s largest private employer for its unfair treatment of workers.
‘In June 2011, several OUR Walmart members presented a Declaration of Respect to Walmart executive management, which, among other things, calls on Walmart to commit to workplace rights, higher wages, dependable work schedules, affordable health care and full-time jobs for associates.
‘OUR Walmart members have partnered with working families, labour organisations and community groups to raise awareness of and protest Walmart’s mistreatment of workers, while facing constant illegal retaliation from Walmart.
‘OUR Walmart members and their supporters have made huge progress in improving conditions for workers at the retail giant.
‘For instance, the efforts of Tiffany Beroid, one of OUR Walmart’s female African American members, and the Respect the Bump group have led Walmart to improve its pregnancy policy.
‘In addition, responding to OUR Walmart members’ growing calls for the retailer to improve access to hours, Walmart came up with a new system that would allow workers to sign up for open shifts online, and after the protest for higher wages by workers in New York and Washington, D.C., Walmart also has committed to eliminate minimum wage jobs.’
The AFL-CIO has also reported: ‘Not content to just verbally attack working families, as he did in his recent State of the State address, new Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner (R) has taken action to strip rights from workers.
‘He signed an executive order that prevents public employee unions from collecting fair share fees from non-union workers.
‘He also has hired a legal team to pursue a federal court ruling that the fees are unconstitutional.
‘While the law requires public employee unions in Illinois to represent all workers in collective bargaining efforts, fair share fees make sure that non-union workers pay for that representation.
‘Rauner argues that fair share fees are being used for political activity, but local unions dispute that claim and say that Rauner’s move is “a blatantly illegal abuse of power”.’
Roberta Lynch, executive director of AFSCME Council 31, said Rauner’s action was based on ‘a paper-thin excuse that can’t hide his real agenda: silencing working people and their unions who stand up for the middle class’.
Writing on Huffington Post, political organiser and strategist Robert Creamer said: ‘Since unions – and collective bargaining – are the major weapons everyday people have to raise their wages, his assault on unions is a direct attack on the middle class and its future in America.’
