NUHW wins two more organizing elections
NUHW continued its rapid growth in January when workers at Sutter Care at Home of Concord and San Leandro, and USC Keck Medical Center’s Cardiothoracic, Cardio, and Bio-Med units voted overwhelmingly to unionize.
The 163 Bay Area-based workers at Sutter Care at Home, who include nurses, nursing assistants and licensed vocational nurses, will join more than 800 Sutter healthcare workers at other facilities as NUHW members.
“We’ve seen how NUHW has empowered workers to stand up to Sutter and win better wages and working conditions,” said Sutter Physical Therapist Charlene Lagac. “Now that we’re organized, we have the power to advocate for ourselves and the people who depend on us for care.”
The organizing victories at USC and Sutter Care at Home come at a time of increasing growth for NUHW as healthcare workers seek more power in their relationships with their employers two years into the pandemic. Nearly 200 workers joined NUHW in October following organizing drives at Sutter Psychiatry Center in Sacramento and Seton Medical Center in Daly City. Several additional organizing drives are underway.
The 39 new USC Keck members include cardiology support coordinators, healthcare concierges, and other administrative staff. They are seeking better wages and benefits, including fully employer-paid health insurance as well as job protections that their approximately 1,500 NUHW-represented coworkers have already won.
“We joined NUHW so that we can have a voice in our workplace and keep pace with the union wages established by our union coworkers,” said USC Keck Echo Tech Chris Amici.