The California Nurses Association withdrew its petition last week with the National Labor Relations Board officially ending its organizing efforts at Ukiah Adventist Hospital, a Seventh-day Adventist health care institution. [See ANN’s November 14 story, “Adventist Hospital Loses Bid to Prevent Union Organizing.”] Coming on the heels of a NLRB decision in favor of the nursing association, the withdrawal was unexpected.

“Hospital and church administrators are relieved that this conflict appears to be ended,” says Attorney Alan J. Reinach, public affairs and religious liberty director for the Adventist Church in the region. “It had been feared that this would be the first of many attempts to organize Adventist hospitals throughout the state.”

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has a longstanding teaching against collective bargaining and exercises its rights within the law to protect its institutions from dealings with labor unions.