Workers in Eureka, Brea vote to join NUHW
Last week, five hundred workers at St. Joseph Eureka (Humboldt County) and Kindred Hospital Brea (Orange County) voted by 2-1 margins to join NUHW.
Mail-in ballots for service workers at St. Joseph Eureka were counted Friday, April 18 at the National Labor Relations Board’s San Francisco office. With the support of NUHW members at another St. Joseph hospital, Santa Rosa Memorial, the Eurkea workers overcame a fierce anti-union campaign by the employer. Two local papers, the North Coast Journal and the Eureka Times-Standard, covered the election.
On Monday, April 15, workers at Kindred Hospital Brea voted to form a union with NUHW, joining their colleagues at Kindred Westminster, who did the same in December. A few of the Brea caregivers offered their thoughts on the victory:
On Monday, April 14, we watched as our coworkers at Kindred Hospital Brea voted by a two-thirds majority to join NUHW and secure our futures. We join together not only for ourselves but for the patients and families we serve. As a union, we want to overcome the frustration of trying to do our best without adequate staffing, equipment, and other services to support us. We deserve to be respected for all of our important contributions to patient care and our hospital. We look to the future with optimism that the Kindred administration will work with us to build a better workplace. We are strong at Kindred Hospital Brea.
Pat Ware, Respiratory
Teresa Darvish, RN, ICU
Jay Salveron, RN, Med-surg/tele
Tresa Hines, CNA, Med-surg/tele