NEWS&PRESS

NUHW union election set for Dec. 17 at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital

SEIU folds under pressure from workers, religious leaders, and labor council—but still won’t agree to ground rules

Santa Rosa, Calif.—After six years of struggle against their employer and six months of obstruction by a rival organization, victory is in sight for caregivers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital who are organizing to form a union with the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). The National Labor Relations Board today scheduled their union election for Dec. 17 and 18.

“I’m so glad the delay is over,” said Melissa Bosanco, a care partner at Memorial Hospital. “Now we can form our union with NUHW and focus on what’s important: making our hospital a better place to work and a better place for our patients.”

A majority of the hospital’s 650 workers chose NUHW on April 13, when they filed a petition with the labor board requesting an election to certify NUHW as their union.

Press Democrat: Msgr. John Brenkle on Labor wars at Memorial Hospital

Monsignor John Brenkle“At Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, workers have clearly chosen to cast their lot with the NUHW. SEIU’s continued delay of the workers’ election, and its refusal to agree to ground rules for the election at Memorial, flies in the face of Catholic social teaching and contradicts SEIU’s own national advocacy for exactly the types of agreement it is now trying to thwart. …SEIU should end its puzzling anti-union campaign of delays and enter into discussions with NUHW and St. Joseph to set ground rules for the union election at Memorial based on the principles we have all worked so hard to achieve.”