The union attempting to organize BryanLGH Medical Center nurses has suspended its efforts and closed its Lincoln office, citing a lack of progress.

Letters notifying core union supporters went out from Chicago on Tuesday, said Steve Nickel, special representative of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), headquartered in Maryland.

The local office was closed Saturday.

The Capital City Nurses Association, formed under the banner of the IAM, emerged publicly with billboards in June after months of quiet organization.

After nine months of recruitment efforts, organizers realized in late November, “We’ve hit a brick wall,” Nickel said Thursday.

BryanLGH spokeswoman Suzanne McMasters said hospital officials were pleased a distraction from patient care was eliminated.

“We’ve always maintained that we didn’t need a union to represent our nurses,” she said. “Our employees have made a statement regarding unions that we’re pleased with.”

Sheila Uridil, a BryanLGH nurse who backed the union, said IAM officials decided to close after talking with nurses, who told them, “We’re not feeling it.”

Organizers faced the problem of educating 1,000 nurses in a conservative state as to why a union would benefit them, Uridil said.

“Most of us are pretty disappointed,” she said, adding that while they were defeated in organizing, “The administration has made positive changes for the employees, and that undoubtedly would not have happened if the union wasn’t here.”

Communication between nurses and managers improved, she said. And she hopes administrators will continue moving in that direction.

In addition to issues of pay and benefits, nurses who supported a union raised concerns over patient care, working conditions, policy and procedures, pensions and staff involvement.

Robin Kappler, a nurse at Bryan-LGH East, was part of a core group of six nurses who led a campaign against the union.

“A lot of us had experienced union representation in the past and it was just an added layer that didn’t make benefits better, didn’t make communication better. It made it worse,” Kappler said.

The opponent group, which attracted 30 nurses to its largest meeting, didn’t want the IAM or any other union at BryanLGH, she said.

“I am by no means saying that things are perfect” at the hospital, Kappler said. “That would be living in a fairy tale.”

Darrin Nedrow of the union’s Chicago office declined to comment on the level of support the union ultimately achieved.

“Obviously, there was enough support for us to stick around” for about nine months, Nickel said, noting the IAM incurred organizing expenses.

Nickel doubted the 10-week-old cross-town strike at Goodyear Tire & Rubber had any effect on efforts to organize nurses.

“People were aware that was going on but it was not that big of an issue,” he said.

Lincoln has less experience with unions than other cities, he noted. BryanLGH administrators were successful in spreading what he called anti-union propaganda through its call-in number, he said.

This marked organized labor’s second failure at BryanLGH. For 13 years, ending in 1995, what was then Bryan Memorial Hospital had the only nongovernmental nurses union in Nebraska. That union  local died as a national restructuring of health care and insurance led to widespread nursing layoffs.

This time, union efforts were begun as the hospital struggled on a number of fronts.

In September 2005, BryanLGH cut the equivalent of 41 full-time employees, the culmination of a six-month efficiency review. By then, roughly 400 other employees —about 10 percent of a previous total — had been squeezed from the hospital by attrition and hiring freezes.

Surgical numbers at BryanLGH West bottomed out in January but then rebounded, pushed by growth in neurological and off-hour surgeries. Renovations at BryanLGH West were completed this fall.

In mid-November, Fitch Ratings gave the hospital an A+ bond rating (its fifth highest ranking) on approximately $216 million in outstanding debt.

Fitch noted BryanLGH remains the dominant provider in the area with a 62.7 percent market share. Fitch also noted that for fiscal 2006, BryanLGH Health System reported an operating margin of 3.2 percent, ($14 million operating income), up from the 2.4 percent ($10 million operating income) for fiscal 2005.

But prior to the turnaround, the layoffs and job freezes — along with unpopular policy changes — fueled discontent among nurses.

With much of the hospital empty of patients, nurses were sent home, where they were paid $2 per hour to be on call. Management also reduced the higher hourly pay nurses earned by working nights and weekends.

In November 2005, the hospital announced it planned to eliminate a popular pay incentive nurses call “add-a-shift.”

Administrators later backed off some of those changes as financial conditions improved and in an effort to slow union efforts.

“Clearly the employer was trying to ask the employees to give them another chance, Nickel said, “an opportunity to try and fix things, and promising to make some changes.”

Reach Mark Andersen at 473-7238 or mandersen@journalstar.com.