Healthcare Workers Across California Vote to Join UHW

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-28-2008/0004782041&EDATE=

Over 1,000 Caregivers at Catholic Facilities Join Union

LOS ANGELES, March 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- During the past two
days, an overwhelming majority of healthcare workers at St. Francis Medical
Center (SFMC) in Lynwood and nine CHW Medical Foundation health clinics in
the Sacramento area voted in separate elections to unionize with SEIU
United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW).

"This victory shows we're united," said Joan Benvenuti-Finch, a
Licensed Vocational Nurse at a clinic in Sacramento. "We're excited about
being able to negotiate a contract so that we can help improve patient
care, advocate for our patients and achieve industry-standard wages and
benefits."

In two separate elections conducted March 26th and 27th, nearly 600
caregivers and support staff at SFMC and 427 caregivers and technical
workers at the CHW Medical Foundation clinics voted to join UHW.

St. Francis Medical Center is part of the Los Altos Hills-based
Daughters of Charity Health System, while the clinics are a part of San
Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West. Before the elections, UHW already
represented 15,000 caregivers at these two Catholic healthcare systems,
which are among the largest hospital systems in the western U.S.

In earlier negotiations, UHW members at the two health systems won the
right for non-union employees to join UHW under a "free and fair" election
agreement, which establishes fair ground rules for the election process. At
SFMC, caregivers prevailed in their union election despite the fact that
SFMC executives violated the agreement by interfering in caregivers'
decision.

FULL story at link.