A jury on Friday ordered one of the country's largest labor unions to pay $17.3 million for defaming a group of Northern California doctors and hospitals. The jury found the New York-based Unite Here union had acted with "fraud, malice or oppression" when it mailed defamatory postcards about Sutter Health. Unite Here sent a mass mailing last year claiming Sutter Health used inadequately cleaned bed linens in its hospitals. The linens were cleaned by a commercial laundry service, which was embroiled in a labor dispute with the union.
See "Union Ordered to Pay Sutter Health $17.3M", Associated Press, Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 23, 2006