World News
Election seen as test of Catholic hospital labor-management relations
Published:
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- A six-year union organizing campaign seen by some as a test of labor-management relations in Catholic health care reached a milestone as workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital voted on whether or not to be represented by a union. In a Dec. 17-18 election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, 664 service and technical workers voted in a three-way contest. Workers at the Catholic hospital were choosing whether to be represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers or the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, or to remain unrepresented. The two unions vying for workers' allegiance have been campaigning against each other as well as against the employer. The unions have accused one another of thwarting unionization efforts that began at the hospital in 2004. Having two unions on the ballot reflected a national split over organizing strategies between two groups of labor leaders in the health care industry on the West Coast. The election was the first attempt to organize service and technical employees in the St. Joseph Health System, which operates 14 facilities in California, Texas and New Mexico.
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