Union demands audit of $29 million loan to Parkview Community Hospital
Letter to HUD official claims hospital spent thousands on union-busting efforts.
The union for healthcare workers at Parkview Community Hospital in Riverside, California, claims the hospital violated the terms of a $29 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development loan by spending what could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars on union busting.
A spokeswoman for Parkview did not return a comment by the time of publication.
In a May 26 to Inspector General David A. Montoya of HUD in Washington, D.C., the union asks for an investigation of whether the hospital violated the regulatory agreement of the loan by spending some of the money on anti-union efforts.
The union recommends HUD direct Parkview to cease and desist from any further spending that may be in violation of the regulatory agreement, conduct an audit of Parkview's financial records and recover expenses made by Parkview using HUD-backed funds.
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"We believe Parkview to be in violation of this RA, as it improperly used the funds to provoke and prolong a labor dispute with its employees and their union, SEIU-UHW, and we want to bring these potential violations to your attention," said Bill Rhodes, research analyst for SEIU-UHW West, in the letter.
A regulatory agreement was made in 2011 between Parkview and HUD on a mortgage note issued to Parkview by Wells Fargo in the amount of $29,098,700, according to the union. The note allowed Parkview to pay off a previous note of $26 million that held a high interest rate of 20 percent.
The union said the labor dispute with the management of the general acute care hospital has gone on for over two years, as a result of Parkview challenging decisions and orders from the National Labor Relations Board after employees voted in support a union in March 2014.
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The NLRB has repeatedly ordered the hospital to bargain, but the hospital has appealed the matter to the United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia, the union said.
Big labor has made inroads in California health systems in recent years, with petitions for unions increasing by 10 percent, and reports of strikes or threatened strikes over wages and other issues.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
