Jury orders Unite Here union to pay medical group $17.3 million

By Jason Bennert, Bay City News Service

July 22, 2006

A jury Friday ruled that a labor union had defamed a Northern California medical group with a mass mailing of postcards and awarded the Sutter Health medical group almost $17.3 million in damages.

The Placer County jury found that Unite Here, one of the nation's largest unions that represents hotel, restaurant and laundry workers, defamed Sutter Health early last year by sending postcards to Northern California residents claiming the group's hospitals used unclean linens. The union was in a labor dispute with the laundry service that cleaned the linens at the time.

Sutter Health runs a number of prominent Bay Area hospitals including Alta Bates in Oakland, California Pacific medical Center in San Francisco and Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame.

"We are pleased that leaders of Unite Here have been held legally accountable for recklessly frightening patients and the public through outrageous and false allegations,'' Sutter Health Board of Directors Chairman Michael Roosevelt said.

In a statement released following the jury's verdict, Sutter Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Gordon Hunt said the verdict money would be reinvested in new patient care.

"Providing top quality care is our number-one priority. The jury's award to Sutter Health will be reinvested right back into our communities in the form of new programs and health services,'' Hunt said.

A spokeswoman for Unite Here was not immediately available for comment on the verdict.

Copyright © 2006 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.

####