Ballots counted: Hospital workers joined NUHW in July 15 election
Victory at Providence Tarzana after ballot count delayed by defeated incumbent union
LOS ANGELES—The National Labor Relations Board has thrown out objections by the now-ousted SEIU, and counted the ballots of nearly 600 caregivers at Providence Tarzana Medical Center who voted on July 15 to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).
The count was 282 votes for NUHW to SEIU’s 69. 38 voted to have no union.
“We’re thrilled to have won this election and put our union back under members’ control,” said Julie Sidrow-Thompson, a monitor tech at the hospital. “For a year and a half, SEIU has stood in our way and left us without a voice. Now that we’re united again in NUHW, we’ll have the strength we need to stand up for our patients and ourselves.”
Providence is the second Catholic hospital system where workers have organized with NUHW, after St. Joseph Health System workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital joined last year. The 13,000 employees of Catholic Healthcare West—the largest non-profit healthcare provider in California—recently began collecting signatures to call for their own election to join NUHW once they are eligible to change unions next year.
And within days, the National Labor Relations Board could set a date for 45,000 Kaiser Permanente workers to make the switch in the biggest private sector union election since the 1940s.
All of these workers are part of a mass exodus of SEIU members who have made NUHW the fastest-growing union in California.
The movement began last January, when SEIU officials from Washington, D.C. took over California’s healthcare union, forced healthcare workers from elected positions, and put themselves in charge. The next day, dozens of healthcare workers voted to establish NUHW as a new, independent union.
Workers at more than 360 facilities have petitioned to join NUHW in the last 15 months, and most are still waiting for their elections. More than 5,600 caregivers at Kaiser facilities, hospitals, and nursing homes have already joined NUHW.
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The National Union of Healthcare Workers is California’s fastest-growing union, representing caregivers in every job classification. NUHW is dedicated to member democracy, dignity and justice for healthcare workers, and quality, affordable healthcare for all. | NUHW.org