BNA Daily Labor Report: California Local of SEIU Organizes 2,000 Workers at 12 Hospitals and Clinics

From BNA Daily Labor Report

United Healthcare Workers-West, a 130,000-member local of the Service Employees International Union, in recent weeks has won representation for some 2,000 workers in three hospitals and nine health clinics across California.

According to UHW, three of the four elections were conducted under "free and fair election" procedures including neutrality agreements that UHW had negotiated at other health care facilities with the same ownership. Three of the elections were conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, and the fourth was conducted under a card-check agreement.

In an April 11 election conducted by the NLRB, workers at Coastal Communities Hospital in Santa Ana voted in two separate elections for UHW representation. According to an official with NLRB Region 21 in Los Angeles, a unit of 238 service, maintenance, technical, and office clerical workers voted 128-43 for UHW, while a unit of 30 professional workers voted 16-6 for the union.

Coastal Communities Hospital is owned by Integrated Healthcare Holdings Inc., which operates three other hospitals in Orange County including Western Medical Center in Anaheim. In contract negotiations last year for employees at Western Medical Center, UHW won the right for nonunion employees at other IHHI hospitals to vote for union representation in a "free and fair elections agreement," UHW spokesman Blinker Wood said April 21.

Meanwhile, a majority of employees at Tri-City Medical Center, a public, district hospital in Oceanside, recently signed union authorization cards designating UHW as their bargaining agent, according to a spokeswoman for the California Department of Industrial Relations.

The California State Mediation & Conciliation Service April 9 verified that 301 out of 578 advanced care technicians, dietary workers, operating room and emergency room technicians, and other workers at Tri-City Medical Center signed union authorization cards in favor of UHW, Wood said. The agency verified the cards under a state law making it responsible for determining whether an employee organization has the necessary majority for exclusive or majority status at a local public agency.

In another NLRB election conducted March 26, caregivers and support staff at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood voted 325-149 for UHW representation, with 45 additional challenged ballots that were not determinative, according to the NLRB Region 21 official. The bargaining unit consists of 586 employees, he added.

St. Francis is part of the Daughters of Charity Health Systems. Earlier UHW negotiated a neutrality agreement with the health system that established ground rules for the union representation process at its other facilities.

Another SEIU Local Charged With Interference

UHW Administrative Vice President John Borsos told BNA April 21 that despite the election agreement, the Daughters of Charity campaigned against the union. In addition, he said, another SEIU local also interfered with the election.

According to information on UHW's Web site, three days before the election, registered nurses from SEIU District 1199 WV/KY/OH sent a letter to workers at St. Francis denouncing UHW for allegedly colluding with the California Nurses Association to raid SEIU hospitals in Ohio and Las Vegas. "Ironically, the same wrongful tactic that CNA did in Ohio of interfering in an election where workers were seeking to have a voice also was done by our international union leaders to workers at St. Francis," UHW said.

UHW was referring to actions by CNA that resulted in SEIU District 1199 WV/KY/OH and Catholic Healthcare Partners cancelling elections scheduled at nine CHP facilities in Ohio for some 7,700 employees. Less than a week before the scheduled elections, CNA/NNOC began distributing leaflets to CHP workers, accusing the hospital system and SEIU of having reached an illegal, "back room" deal that compromised workers' rights (48 DLR A-15, 03/12/08 ).

Meanwhile, on March 27, employees at nine Catholic Healthcare West Medical Foundation clinics in the Sacramento area voted 319-57 in an NLRB election for UHW representation, according to an official in NLRB's Region 20 office in San Francisco. Some 427 caregivers and technical workers are in the bargaining unit, she said. This election also took place under similar neutrality ground rules UHW negotiated with CHW.