A federal court panel announced Thursday that it will reexamine a senior living and care operator’s racketeering lawsuit against local labor unions after a previous decision was vacated.
The Third Circuit Court vacated a December split decision that ruled in favor of tactics used by two Service Employees International Union affiliates, which had led to CareOne Management and its parent company, HealthBridge Management, filing an extortion lawsuit in 2012.
The Third Circuit Court indicated that it would rehear the senior living companies’ appeal of a district court decision that tossed the companies’ claims that the unions used aggressive tactics at Connecticut and New Jersey assisted living and nursing homes in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, or RICO Act, according to Bloomberg Law.
The original lawsuit claimed that the unions engaged in a pattern of criminal sabotage, intimidation and extortion in a coordinated campaign to threaten to put CareOne and HealthBridge out of business if they did not meet union demands.
The 2012 legal action, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, concerned a push for unionization by SEIU affiliates SEIU 1199 United Healthcare Workers East and the New England Health Care Employees Union District 1199.
At the time, the companies stated that they had worked cooperatively with unions in the past, saying the lawsuit was not about collective bargaining, but rather “economic terrorism.” The companies said the lawsuit sought to end a campaign of “extortionate demands and myriad unlawful tactics” used against them by the union affiliates.
The lawsuit claimed that the criminal sabotage occurred at three Connecticut HealthBridge facilities, where workers went on strike in 2012 over pay, health insurance benefits and HealthBridge contributions to pensions. The suit said the acts of sabotage “put the lives the elderly and frail patients at direct and immediate risk.”
The suit also claimed personal attacks against one of the indirect owners of the two companies — Daniel E. Strauss. Those personal attacks, the suit claimed, were meant to intimidate Straus by invading his privacy, harassing him and impeding business and philanthropic activities unrelated to the two companies.
In December, the Third Circuit three-judge panel upheld a 2019 decision by a lower court decision, tossing the CareOne / HealthBridge operators’ claims that three unions resorted to fraud and extortion to advance bargaining and organizing efforts across the companies’ northeast location. The district court’s decision also was affirmed in September 2020.
Neither CareOne nor HealthBridge Management had responded to requests for comment from McKnight’s Senior Living by the production deadline.
