New England Health Care Employees Union v. Rowland

• Decision Date: 07 May 2002
• Docket Number: No. Civ.A. 3-01-CV-464(JCH).,Civ.A. 3-01-CV-464(JCH).
• Citation: 204 F.Supp.2d 336
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut
• Parties: NEW ENGLAND HEALTH CARE EMPLOYEES UNION, DISTRICT 1199, SEIU/AFL—CIO, Plaintiff, v. Honorable John G. ROWLAND, Governor of State of Connecticut, individually and in his official capacity, et al., Defendants.

204 F.Supp.2d 336

NEW ENGLAND HEALTH CARE EMPLOYEES UNION, DISTRICT 1199, SEIU/AFL—CIO, Plaintiff, v. Honorable John G. ROWLAND, Governor of State of Connecticut, individually and in his official capacity, et al., Defendants.

No. Civ.A. 3-01-CV-464(JCH).

United States District Court, D. Connecticut.

May 7, 2002.

John M. Creane, Michael E. Passero, Law Offices of John M. Creane, Milford, CT, for plaintiff.

Gary S. Starr, Sheila Huddleston, Brian Clemow, Gabriel Joseph Jiran, Shipman & Goodwin, Hartford, CT, James K. Robertson, Jr., Carmody & Torrance, Waterbury, CT, for defendants.

RULING ON DEFENDANTS' MOTION FOR MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT [DKT. NO. 57]

HALL, District Judge.

In this action, the plaintiff, New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, SEIU/AFL—CIO ("District 1199"), seeks injunctive relief, a declaratory judgment, and damages allegedly arising from the conduct of the defendants, the Honorable John G. Rowland, individually and in his official capacity as Governor of the State of Connecticut, and Patricia Wilson-Coker, in her official capacity as Commissioner of the Department of Social Services ("defendants"), in connection with strikes by members of the plaintiff. District 1199 alleges that the defendants' use of state power in connection with an ongoing labor dispute and strike between District 1199 and Connecticut nursing homes violated its members' First Amendment rights and interfered with its members' rights protected by the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA"). The action is brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Pending before the court is the defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment [Dkt. No. 57]. The defendants argue that their actions did not interfere with the rights of District 1199's members, that their actions were not preempted by the NLRA, that Governor Rowland's actions did not violate District 1199's First Amendment rights, and that Governor Rowland is entitled to qualified immunity for the claims against him in his individual capacity. The court will address each argument in turn.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

District 1199 represents approximately 7000 union members who are employed at seventy-one nursing homes in Connecticut. These members are employed as registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, nurses' aides, and housekeepers and in maintenance, laundry, clerical, and other positions. The State of Connecticut currently has licensed approximately 250 nursing homes, with 30,000 licensed nursing-home beds.

The State and the Governor have an obligation to protect and ensure the health and welfare of the nursing-home residents. Connecticut nursing homes are regulated by the State of Connecticut under the auspices of the Department of Public Health ("DPH"). DPH establishes and monitors the level of care and staffing required to maintain the safety, health, and welfare of nursing-home residents. Conn.Gen.Stat. §§ 19a-493, 19a-496. DPH is responsible, under state statute, for assessing the care and services provided to nursing-home residents in order to determine whether nursing homes properly care for their residents' health, safety, and welfare. Id.

Approximately seventy-five percent of the residents in the nursing homes affected by the strikes at issue in this case are covered by the federal Medicaid program. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396-1396v. The State, through its Department of Social Services ("DSS"), reimburses nursing homes for the cost of the food, shelter, and medical care of those residents covered by Medicaid.

In February 1999, during the last significant round of negotiations between the nursing homes and District 1199, District 1199 sent out ten-day strike notices to forty-seven nursing homes with whom its contracts had expired. Prior to the strike, the Governor announced that he was proposing an approximately $200 million increase in funds for wages and benefits in the nursing-home industry. While the announcement averted strikes at most nursing homes, District 1199 did strike some nursing homes where contracts could not be negotiated. DSS received and processed, on an ad hoc basis, special Medicaid reimbursement requests from nursing homes for strike-related costs attributable to the Medicaid portion of their population. The strike-related reimbursements included non-refundable deposits for replacement workers and security.

Aware that contracts between District 1199 and fifty-one nursing homes would expire in March 2001, state officials held meetings within state agencies beginning as early as September 2000 to discuss concerns about contingency plans to protect the health and safety of residents at the nursing homes involved. State officials also met with some nursing-home owners and with representatives of the nursing home owners' association. They also met once with union representatives.

Long before strike notices were issued, state officials determined that state contingency plans were necessary because the Governor would not recommend increases in Medicaid appropriation similar to those that ended the 1999 strikes and because the individual nursing homes' ability to serve their residents was subject to disruption by a number of factors beyond the control of the homes' owners. Factors considered by the defendants,¹ which could prevent the nursing-home owners from providing adequate care, included the availability, reliability, and appropriate licensure of replacement workers; the availability of adequate transportation to get the replacement workers to sites where they were needed; the vagaries of weather or other problems that could delay replacement workers traveling to Connecticut from distant locales; the financial plight of many of the nursing homes with expiring labor contracts; the lack of census in many of the nursing homes; and the need to coordinate among the nursing homes struck given the large number of workers and residents involved.

In December 2000, DSS contacted the Health Care Financing Administration ("HCFA"), the federal agency overseeing Medicaid, to determine whether strike-related, nursing replacement expenses to deal with the strike contingency would be reimbursable costs under the Medicaid program. Based on the information provided by DSS, the HCFA official responded informally that the expenses should be reimbursable.

On February 7, 2001, Governor Rowland submitted a supplemental budget to the legislature that included a $5,000,000 line item to cover contingency planning costs of state agencies and nursing homes. These contingency planning costs, which included the worker replacement expenses, were in anticipation of possible nursing-home strikes by District 1199 following expiration of its contracts.

On the same day the supplemental budget was submitted, DSS sent a memo to nursing homes with expiring union contracts notifying them of DSS's intention to immediately reimburse the Medicaid portion of any strike-related costs, including worker replacement costs, as "extraordinary and unanticipated costs." Defs.Exh. M. In the view of DSS, strike-related costs are allowable costs under Connecticut General Statutes § 17b-340. To that end, the February 7, 2001 memo advised nursing-home owners what extraordinary expenses would be considered immediately reimbursable in the event of a potential strike or job action. DSS did not promise to reimburse all strike-related costs, but only those costs that were "extraordinary and necessary for the health and safety of residents." Id. at 1. The memo advised the nursing homes how DSS would reimburse extraordinary or unanticipated costs to avoid an immediate negative impact on the welfare, health, and safety of the nursing-home residents. The memo further notified the nursing homes that they had to comply with the obligations of the NLRA. It also stated that DSS reserved the right to recover all or, if appropriate, a portion of the expedited reimbursement should the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") determine that a nursing home engaged in unfair labor practices.

In addition to DSS's assessment and plan, the Office of Emergency Management ("OEM"), the state agency responsible for planning, implementation, and management of the State's response to actual or potential natural disasters, public emergencies, or threats to the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of Connecticut or to their property, facilitated meetings among affected state agencies and developed a comprehensive plan for responding to the potential strikes at the affected nursing homes, as well as at group homes run by other state agencies. The Comprehensive Health Care Support Plan was designed to be implemented in the event that the nursing homes or group homes proved unable to provide the continuous, uninterrupted level and quality of care and services required by the nursing or group home residents.

From January through March 20, 2001, District 1199 met with nineteen nursing-home owners operating fifty-one nursing homes in an effort to negotiate successor contracts to agreements that expired on March 15, 2001. Those negotiations failed to result in any successor contracts by March 20, 2001.

On or about March 6, 2001, District 1199 gave written notification to forty-one of the fifty-one nursing homes of District 1199's intention to strike on March 20, 2001, beginning at 6:00 a.m.² District 1199 scheduled the strike to protest the lack of progress in negotiating new contracts and the owners' unwillingness to increase staffing in their nursing homes. On or about March 15, 2001, District 1199 withdrew its strike notice from one of the nursing homes. On or about March 16, 2001, District 1199 advised the nursing-home owners in writing that it intended its strike to last only twenty-four hours.

Approximately 4000 employees would be engaged in the work stoppage at the forty nursing homes receiving strike notices. Those forty nursing homes house approximately 5200 residents who receive care twenty-four...