Reference no: EM133179468

Scenario:

Sylvia worked as a laboratory technician at a private hospital for two years. She was a full-time employee. The hospital employed about 900 persons in various positions and was a non-union employer.

Sylvia and a number of her fellow employees were unhappy with the hospital's sick-leave policies. They felt that the hospital should offer more than one week of paid sick leave per year for employees who had worked for the hospital for five years or less. A group of seven employees, including Sylvia, met one evening at one of the employees' homes and decided as a group to appoint Sylvia to go to the Human Resources Director and request that the hospital increase its sick-leave benefit from one to two weeks of paid leave per year. Sylvia met with the director on two occasions, and each time told her that, on behalf of herself and other employees, she was requesting that the hospital increase its sick-leave benefit. The director refused to make any commitment in response.

Finally, after hearing nothing for several weeks from the HR Director, Sylvia called the local office of a labor union that represented health care employees. Two days later, at the end of her work shift, she started handing out union-membership cards to her fellow employees. About three months later, the union was selected by the employees in a government-conducted election to represent the hospital's non-supervisory employees, including laboratory technicians.

After winning the election, the union proposed to the hospital's management that it enter into a collective-bargaining agreement including a provision expanding paid sick-leave accumulation from one to two weeks per year. The hospital replied that it had no obligation to negotiate about leave, only about wages and hours. The union responded that if the hospital held to that position, the union would go on strike. The hospital told the union to feel free to do so, but if it did, the hospital would fire the striking employees and replace them with  new employees because it was obligated to stay open to care for patients.

QUESTION: 

Suppose the employer agreed to bargain over all mandatory subjects of bargaining, but after repeated meetings it was unable in good faith to agree to a complete collective-bargaining agreement with the union. The union responded by going on strike. As a practical matter, could the employer bring in new employees to perform the work of the strikers? Why or why not?