St. Elizabeth's Medical Center workers vote to join union

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2009/04/st_elizabeths_w.html

April 9, 2009 06:13 PM

More than 800 employees at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton will join the Service Employees International Union, the largest union victory at a Boston area hospital in about two decades.

Nearly three-quarters of those voting, including respiratory therapists, surgical and x-ray technicians, clerks, nursing assistants, housekeepers, and dietary workers, approved a plan to join Local 1199 of SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, union leaders said today. The secret-ballot vote, conducted Tuesday and yesterday under National Labor Relations Board supervision, was 453-168.

St. Elizabeth, the flagship of the Caritas Christi Health Care chain, is the first large Boston hospital to be organized by the SEIU, which in 2007 began a drive to unionize Boston's major hospitals. The majority of employees at area hospitals are not union members.

Mike Fadel, executive vice president of Local 1199, said "the workers at St. Elizabeth's have shown the way" for other hospital employees his union hopes to organize. Fadel said the SEIU plans to launch campaigns at one or more other Boston hospitals next month.

Caritas Christi, which operates six community hospitals, reached an agreement with the union in January to allow "free and fair" union elections. Under the deal, managers at Caritas Christi hospitals were restricted from lobbying workers to reject the union, while the union committed to refraining from publicly disparaging the hospitals.

The hospital chain was founded by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and is New England's second largest.

FULL story at link.

[virgogal]

1. Great news! That's where I had my 6 kids many years ago.

[demosincebirth]

2. "free and fair union elections" is not the norm.