In re: Methodist Hospital and Hospital & Nursing Home Employee Union, Local 113 of the Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO/CLC and its Professional and Technical Health Care Union Division

A hospital adopted a policy banning smoking throughout the hospital.  A panel of arbitrators found the rule to be reasonable in that the rule is consistent with the hospital’s basic mission, state law requires hospitals to be smoke-free as of January 1, 1990 [which was a little more than one year away], and the cost of modification of facilities to provide smoking areas for a small fraction of the work force for one year would be substantial.

91 LA 969 (1988).