Reynolds v. Steward St. Elizabeth's Med. Ctr. of Bos., Inc.

364 F.Supp.3d 37

Michael REYNOLDS, Plaintiff,

v.STEWARD ST. ELIZABETH'S MEDICAL CENTER OF BOSTON, INC., and 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, Defendants.

CIVIL ACTION NO. 16-11119-DPW

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

Filed March 7, 2019

L. Richard LeClair, III, LeClair & LeClair PC, Waltham, MA, for Plaintiff.

Joseph W. Ambash, Amber L. Elias, Joshua D. Nadreau, Fisher & Phillips LLP, Betsy L. Ehrenberg, David B. Rome, Jillian M. Ryan, Pyle Rome Ehrenberg, PC, Boston, MA, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DOUGLAS P. WOODLOCK, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Plaintiff, Michael Reynolds, brings this action under Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act claiming that a hospital terminated his employment without just cause and that his union breached its duty of fair representation in declining to pursue his grievance to arbitration.

Before me are the Defendants' motions for summary judgment on all of Mr. Reynold's claims as well as their motion to strike portions of Mr. Reynold's affidavit.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background¹

The union Defendant, 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East ("the Union"), is an unincorporated labor organization that at all relevant times was the collective bargaining agent for certain non-supervisory employees of the hospital Defendant, Steward St. Elizabeth's Medical Center of Boston, Inc. ("the Hospital").

Since approximately 2009, the Union has had a collective bargaining relationship with the Hospital. Specifically, at all times relevant to this action, the Union and the Hospital were parties to a Collective Bargaining Agreement ("CBA"). The CBA was in effect from October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2013 and from October 1, 2013 to October 31, 2016.

1. The CBA

Article XI, § 11.01 of the CBA (in effect in October 2013) provides, "Any employer covered by this Agreement has the right to discipline, suspend or discharge a worker for Just Cause only, except in the case of a probationary worker who may be terminated without recourse to the Grievance Procedure."

Article XXIV, § 24.03 of the CBA governs the parties' formal grievance and arbitration procedure. Section 24.03, in part, provides:

Section 24.03 Formal Procedure:

In the event of a controversy concerning the meaning or application of any provision of this Agreement, such controversy shall be treated by the Union and the Employer as a grievance and shall be settled, if possible, by the Union, the worker and the Employer as set forth hereafter. At all Steps of the Grievance Procedure, the worker or delegate will submit the grievance, in writing, explaining as specifically as possible, the nature of the complaint and identify the contract provision(s) affected. Group grievances may be submitted at Step 2.

Step 1 – Department Head/Manager

The worker or Delegate will present a grievance in writing to the Manager or Department Head within twenty (20) working days from the date of the alleged violation of the contract. The grievance must include the facts, dates, applicable provision(s) of the contract and the remedy requested.

Article XXIV provides further for advancement to Step 2 and Step 3 meetings with representatives of senior management, human resources, and the Vice President of Human Resources, respectively, should the disagreement remain unresolved.

Section 24.03 of the CBA further provides:

Arbitration

In the event that the parties are unable to settle a grievance after the Step 3 or Step 4 process is complete, then either party may request arbitration of said grievance by serving written request for arbitration upon the other party, no later than thirty (30) days following the date of the written answer under Step 3 or within 5 days of terminating the optional Step 4 mediation process. If either party fails to make a written request for arbitration in this manner within this thirty (30) day period the grievance shall be deemed to have been settled in accordance with the most recent written answer which shall be final and binding on the parties.

2. Relevant Individuals

MaryEllen Leveille has been employed by the Union and its predecessors since 1997. She currently serves as Vice President of the Union's Steward Health Care System Division.

In 2013, Enid Eckstein held the position as Vice President of the Union's Steward Health Care System Division. Ms. Eckstein had been employed by the Union and its predecessors since 1989. She retired in October 2014, at which time Ms. Leveille succeeded her as Vice President.

In July 2013, Ms. Leveille served as the Union's Lead Administrative Organizer ("AO") at the Hospital. Her responsibilities as Lead AO included negotiating the Union's master contract with Steward Health Care System, administering the CBA at the Hospital, including by assisting Union delegates, and assisting then-Vice President Eckstein with staff matters and day-to-day duties. As Lead AO, Ms. Leveille also attended meetings with management on behalf of the Union and represented bargaining unit members throughout the contractual grievance procedure.

Plaintiff, Michael Reynolds, was hired by the Hospital as an MRI Technologist ("MRI Tech") in April 2010. While employed at the Hospital, Mr. Reynolds was a member of the Union and his employment was governed by the CBA. For the three and a half years of his employment, Mr. Reynolds was supervised by Judith Ierardi, the Operations Manager of Radiology, Radiation Oncology, and the Breast Center at the Hospital.

3. The Contrast Incident

On July 20, 2013, Mr. Reynolds received an order for an MRI which expressly stated "p[atien]t is pregnant and so no contrast." The order also indicated that it should be for an "MRI BRAIN W/WO CON." Mr. Reynolds thereafter entered an order in which the statement "patient is pregnant and so no contrast" had been removed. On that same day, Mr. Reynolds himself injected a pregnant patient with gadolinium-based contrast.

Hospital policy cautioned that "[g]adolinium-based agents should be administered in pregnancy only with extreme caution and avoided if at all possible." Ms. Ierardi testified that in her 25 years she "never ha[d] heard of anyone injecting a pregnant patient with contrast."

As a matter of routine where serious discipline was under consideration, Ms. Ierardi telephoned Ms. Leveille to let her know there had been a "very serious incident," in reference to the contrast matter, and that she (Ierardi) would recommend that Reynolds be terminated." Ms. Leveille engaged Ms. Ierardi in a discussion of the incident and advocated strongly against termination, based on the role two physicians played in the contrast incident and based on lesser discipline that had been issued previously to an MRI tech who had committed a serious error. Ms. Leveille made clear that the Union would vigorously challenge termination should the Hospital discharge Mr. Reynolds.

On July 26, 2013, Mr. Reynolds attended a disciplinary meeting with Ms. Ierardi regarding the contrast incident. He was represented by Union delegate, Kristin Knehans. During this meeting, Ms. Knehans stated that while the contrast incident may be "a fireable offense," the Union would strongly fight against Mr. Reynolds's termination based on the lesser discipline previously issued to an MRI tech who had committed a serious error.

At the conclusion of the disciplinary meeting, the Hospital did not terminate Mr. Reynolds, but issued him a Final Warning that stated, "[Mr. Reynolds] failed to follow the contrast policy for a pregnant patient in the MRI suite. This is an egregious violation of the Contrast Medium for Pregnant Policy Rad-02-11, and MRI in pregnancy Policy MR-11 which could have resulted in harm to the unborn infant." The Final Warning stated that "any other performance or behavioral problems may result in further disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment."²

Mr. Reynolds did not grieve the July 26, 2013 Final Warning or request that the Union do so.

4. Performance After the Contrast Incident Leading to His Termination

In August 2013, less than a month after the issuance of his first Final Warning, Mr. Reynolds was the subject of a complaint from a radiology tech aid, Jemilexi Figueroa. Among other things, Ms. Figueroa complained that there had been several incidents over the prior two months in which she felt that Mr. Reynolds had "harassed and belittled" her and that she had "suffered stress and verbal abuse on numerous occasions" as a result of Mr. Reynolds's behavior. Mr. Reynolds was not Ms. Figueroa's supervisor nor did he have any supervisory authority over her. In his view, she was not doing her job, was lazy, and was there just to collect a paycheck so he had created a list of responsibilities and a check-off list for certain duties to be used by Ms. Figueroa and the other tech aids.

On September 17, 2013, Mr. Reynolds attended another disciplinary meeting with Ms. Ierardi and Human Resources Administrator, Catherine O'Neill,³ following Ms. Ierardi's receipt of complaints from Ms. Figueroa and other department staff concerning Mr. Reynold's conduct. Because Mr. Reynolds had expressed dissatisfaction with Ms. Knehans, Ms. Leveille herself accompanied Mr. Reynolds to the meeting.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Reynolds received a second Final Warning. This second Final Warning cited Mr. Reynolds for his interactions with Ms. Figueroa and for "not communicating in a respectful collaborative manner with other staff members and creating and disseminating documents surrounding responsibilities and departmental procedures [that] has created an uncomfortable work environment which counteracts the policies set forth by the Medical Center." It further stated that "[f]ailure to satisfactorily correct the problem(s) as stated in this warning or any further occurrences in the future of this type or any other performance or conduct problems, will result in further disciplinary action including the possibility of suspension and/or termination. ...