USC Norris Cancer Hospital caregivers join NUHW
One hundred and twenty caregivers at the University of Southern California’s Norris Cancer Hospital voted by a 2-1 margin to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers in an election held Thursday, August 25.
Norris caregivers’ priorities in forming a union are to improve staffing and the quality of care at the hospital, protect benefits from cuts, and to achieve parity with their counterparts at USC’s Keck Hospital in terms of wages and workplace rights.
“Norris Cancer Hospital caregivers have voted overwhelmingly to join our eight hundred Keck Hospital coworkers by forming a union with NUHW,” said Radiation Therapist Oscar Vargas. “We look forward to bargaining a contract with wage scales equal to our coworkers across the street, improvements to our benefits and workplace rights, job security, and a voice in patient care.”
NUHW-represented workers at Norris include patient care assistants, licensed vocational nurses, monitor techs, respiratory therapists, radiology techs, radiation therapists, lab assistants, pharmacy techs, surgical techs, and materials management clerks.