At the same time, judgments on 22 unfair labor practice charges filed since March between the union and the Valley Health System are starting to return from the regional National Labor Relations Board office in Phoenix. Seven have been dismissed, three have been deferred to the grievance process, one was withdrawn and 11 remain under investigation.

The cases highlight just how contentious this summer's negotiating talks are between SEIU Local 1107, which represents nurses and other hospital workers, and Valley Health System. The Las Vegas hospital group, part of national company UHS, has three units in negotiations: technical workers at Desert Springs and nurses at both Desert Springs and Valley hospitals.

The union is also engaged in negotiations with University Medical Center and HCA-owned Sunrise and Southern Hills hospitals. There are also charges filed concerning those groups, but those cases have not been inciting enough to warrant a public protest, as the union did before Desert Springs on May 23.

The SEIU counts its contract with St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, signed on May 2 with just three negotiating sessions, as a success.

The UHS versus SEIU hearing before the National Labor Relations Board this week was expected to last at least two days. The hospital was attempting to prove that the union unfairly influenced tech workers in a May 4 decertification election. The bargaining group — which includes workers in radiology, medical records and occupational therapy — voted 65-to-31 to stay in the union.

"The union was basically in complete control of the employers' premises, and the employer was incapable of responding," said hospital attorney John H. Douglas.

In opening arguments, he laid out a strategy to show that union employees coerced voters to their side outside of their allowed boundaries, such as a stipulation that only two union staffers could be in the hospital at one time. Among the objections, Douglas said Local 1107 Director Jane McAlevey publicly demeaned hospital Chief Executive Sam Kaufman on April 13 and had a disruptive, obscenity-laced altercation with an anti-union consultant in a hallway on May 2.

SEIU attorney Bruce A. Harland said in his opening statements that the hospital's claims were bogus. He planned to prove that the hospital itself had an intense campaign in the decertification election, hiring "fancy, expensive union busters who assaulted (individuals) verbally and physically."

He said few people heard and could have been influenced by the altercation between McAlevey and Kaufman, and that would not be enough to overturn an election.

As for the confrontation between McAlevey and the consultant: "The only incident that occurred on that day was when the hospitals' agents assaulted Ms. McAlevey in an elevator when there were no bargaining members left," he said.

A judgment on the hearing, being presided over by a hearing officer, will likely come a few weeks after it is concluded, said Stephen Wamser, the board's deputy regional attorney.

The union had filed a unfair labor practices charge against Desert Springs hospital on March 1 about the same election, but it was denied by the Phoenix office because it said the only evidence of intimidation and coercion was a supervisor posting anti-union propaganda on a common-use bulletin board. An appeal by the union was denied in May 16.

The Desert Springs charges remaining to be investigated include six that allege intimidations and violations of the union's rights to access employees, and that the hospital refused to bargain in good faith. Desert Springs has one charge against SEIU under investigation for not providing information about the contract with the St. Rose hospitals, and another for bargaining issues.

The five charges filed against the union by UHS that were dismissed relate to the beginning of the negotiating season. The hospital group said it had to file charges because the union was stalling on negotiations; it also filed some because the union insisted that all members could take part in bargaining sessions. The Phoenix office turned down these charges.

Respiratory therapist Michelle Clouthier, a member of the union, said on Wednesday that the work environment is still very "tense." She said she is pushing for the union's goals, including mandatory staffing ratios, to reduce frequent mandatory overtime.

"The staff is exhausted, and now we're being intimidated by hospital environment with union busters," she said.