The National Labor Relations Board found merit in numerous unfair labor practice charges related to recent mass layoffs and other incidents at Howard Brown Health, a Chicago-based LGBTQ+ healthcare provider.
The complaints were filed by the Illinois Nurses Association, a union representing a range of employees at Howard Brown and has had a contentious relationship with the provider’s management over the last year.
Follow the latest layoffs and closures from providers, insurers and other industry players here.
Among the association’s 16 charges that allege at least 24 separate violations of the National Labor Relations Act, the NLRB found merit in eight charges, according to INA attorney Matthew Bartmes. Those include charges that Howard Brown bargained regressively with the union, supplied false information to it, and unlawfully bargained over and implemented the layoffs of more than 60 employees without reaching a legitimate impasse. The remaining charges are still under investigation, Bartmes said.
Now, as is custom, the NLRB says it will seek a settlement between the parties, which could include reinstatement of employees, back pay and other damages paid to wrongfully laid-off employees. If Howard Brown doesn’t agree to settle, the NLRB would then issue a complaint against the provider and the matter would go before an administrative law judge, who would ultimately make a ruling on whether Howard Brown violated the National Labor Relations Act.
Howard Brown’s Associate Director of Communications and Marketing Wren O’Kelley told Crain’s that the organization was notified of the NLRB’s findings on Tuesday and is “deeply surprised and disappointed.”
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“Our goal has always been to work and negotiate in good faith with our union and all of our employees,” O’Kelley says.
O’Kelley added that Howard Brown has not yet determined how it will move forward or whether it will agree to the settlement.
Howard Brown laid off 16% of its staff late last year amid financial challenges and a $12 million revenue gap. Cut positions included administrative, social service and behavioral health roles. In response, hundreds of Howard Brown workers began striking at several of the health system’s clinics across Chicago, asking the provider to reinstate the employees.
“Knowing that many people who cared about this organization would be losing their jobs, and that so many patients would be losing the workers who cared for them, was infuriating,” Lindsey Martin, a licensed clinical social worker who had worked for Howard Brown for eight years before being laid off, said in the union statement. “This NLRB determination feels deeply vindicating. It’s not just us, our patients, and our community who sees the injustice.”
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The layoffs came just months after many of those same employees voted to join the health system’s existing nurses union. With the move, the union began representing more than 400 Howard Brown, Broadway Youth Center and Brown Elephant workers, though that number has now dropped to 355 workers. Roles represented include patient support staff, social work and behavioral health teams, retail workers and some administrative professionals.
In its statement today, the union said Howard Brown leadership came to initial bargaining meetings with a proposal for staff cutbacks. As contract negotiations proceeded, the union said Howard Brown management delayed providing financial proof that layoffs were necessary, supplied false information to union leaders and workers, threatened a bargaining unit and surveilled union members.
Howard Brown CEO David Ernesto Munar previously told Crain’s he was aware of the NLRB complaints but maintained that management had bargained in good faith with the union.
Founded in 1974, Howard Brown provides health care primarily to LGBTQ+ patients across several clinics in Chicago and serves more than 40,000 adults every year. According to its website, the system has an annual budget of more than $145 million.
