We urge our colleagues to join with us in protesting Beverly
Enterprises' attack on Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner's academic freedom
and first amendment rights.
Michal Belknap, Professor of Law, California Western School of
Law
Clete Daniel, Professor of American Labor History, School of
Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University
Ellen Dannin, Professor of Law, California Western School of Law
Julius Getman, The Earl E. Sheffield Regents Chair and Professor
of Law,University of Texas Law School and former President,
American Association of University Professors
Lois S. Gray, Alice Grant Professor of Labor Relations, NYSSILR,
Cornel University
Harry C. Katz, The Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective
Bargaining, NYSSILR, Cornell University
Risa Lieberwitz, Associate Professor, School of Industrial and
Labor Relations,Cornell University
Richard Lempert, Francis A. Allen Collegiate Professor of Law and
Chair of the Department of Sociology, University of Michigan
Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood & W. St. Garwood, Jr.
Centennial Chair, University of Texas Law School
Deborah Malamud, Professor of Law University of Michigan School
of Law
Ray Marshall, former Secretary of Labor
Scott Powe, Anne Green Regents Chair, University of Texas Law
School
James Rundle, Labor Education Coordinator, Industrial & Labor
Relations Conference Center
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The statement, including background information, is set
forth below.
If you are willing to add your name to the Statement of Protest,
please e-mail Ellen J. Dannin at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Please add my name to the Statement of Protest:
Name:
Title for identification purposes:
Address:
Phone number:
Email address:
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Statement of Protest
On February 9, 1998, Beverly Enterprises, a company with a
deplorable record in labor relations matters filed a defamation
suit in federal court against Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner. Dr.
Bronfenbrenner is well-respected academic who has done important
research on a variety of labor issues. Beverly seeks both
compensatory and punitive damages. With the complaint, Beverly's
attorneys, Pietragallo, Bosick & Gordon of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, and Walter & Haverfield, of Cleveland, Ohio, served
a massive request for production of documents. Among the
documents requested, Beverly seeks copies of all documents and
confidential survey data relating to Dr. Bronfenbrenner.'s
research on union and employer behavior in union organizing
campaigns. It also seeks documents concerning Cornell's policies
concerning the faculty research, speeches, presentations,
lectures and seminars.
The circumstances and background of this suit make clear
that this is a thinly veiled attack on Dr Bronfenbrenner's
academic freedom and her rights under the first amendment. The
lawsuit is based on remarks made by Dr Bronfenbrenner at a May
19, 1997 Congressional Town meeting sponsored by several western
Pennsylvania congressional representatives and Rep. Lane Evans
(D-Ill). They were joined by Senator Arlen Spector (R-PA). The
meeting was called for the express purpose of investigating
Beverly's employment policies. Beverly is one of the country's
largest nursing home chains.
Four days before the Town Hall meeting, Rep. Lane Evans had
introduced the Federal Procurement and Assistance Integrity Act
(HR 1624), which would give the labor secretary the authority to
debar or suspend companies from receiving federal contracts if
they have a clear pattern or practice of violations of the
National Labor Relations Act, the Occupational Safety and Health
Act, or the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Of the more than 750 nursing homes Beverly Enterprises
operates, 42 are in Pennsylvania. Beverly is defending itself
from hundreds of unfair labor practice complaints brought by the
National Labor Relations Board. It also has been identified by
the U.S. General Accounting Office as a serious labor law
violator. In January 1993, the NLRB issued its decision in
Beverly I, finding that the chain had committed some 135 unfair
labor practices at 32 facilities in 12 states between mid-1986
and mid-1988. Two other Administrative Law Judge decisions found
Beverly had committed additional unfair labor practices between
mid-1988 and early 1992 at a number of nursing homes. In the most
recent Beverly decision issued November 26, 1997, NLRB
Administrative Law Judge Robert Wallace found that Beverly's
"wide-ranging and persistent misconduct, demonstrat[ed] a general
disregard for the employees' fundamental rights."
Dr. Bronfenbrenner's testimony at the meeting presented the
results of her past decade's research concerning union
organizing. Based on her studies, she concluded: "Beverly stood
out in my findings, both for the high level of union activity at
Beverly Enterprises facilities and for the consistency and
intensity of their union avoidance efforts."
Filing a lawsuit against Dr Bronfenbrenner under these
circumstances is an affront to the Congress, an insult to
academic inquiry and a disgrace to the legal profession. It
undermines our legislative process and important democratic
values. It is intended to send a warning Dr. Bronfenbrenner and
to other academics not to engage in honest inquiry into topics a
powerful corporation finds unpleasant.
We, the undersigned, are labor teachers and researchers, law
professors, and constitutional law scholars at universities and
law schools throughout the United States. We condemn Beverly's
actions and urge it to withdraw this lawsuit.
