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Nearly 350 workers at Unity Hospital in Fridley have voted to join Service Employees International Union Healthcare Minnesota.
Tuesday’s vote was the first major election in the region that happened under the new National Labor Relations Board rules. Jobs in the bargaining unit include nursing assistants, dietary aides, environmental services aides, patient care technicians, health unit coordinators and others. The vote was 59.4% to 40.6% in favor of joining the union.
Unity workers celebrated the results. Tania Logacz, a nursing assistant from Coon Rapids, was a leader in the campaign to form the union and spoke out about why workers fought, and won, their union.
“What really matters to us is patient care. We’re not just a number. Today, by voting to form a union, we showed that we the employees do count and we’re going to look out for patients’ safety and our own safety,” said Logacz. “Care giving is getting tougher, but management only considers the total number of patients when setting staffing ratios, not the acuity of care needed. This has led to many more employee injuries and staff are being burnt out.”
Many workers, including Kathy Sodman, a health unit coordinator from Ramsey, have been fighting for years to get their Union at Unity, making Tuesday’s victory especially exciting.
“As a long-time employee, I always have hoped that Unity was as dedicated to my future as much as I am dedicated to Unity’s. But the reality is that management views us as easily expendable even through all my years of hard work for the hospital,” Sodman said. “I’ve been part of previous attempts over the past 10 years to organize a union at Unity and today we finally succeeded, and we will be heard!”
Barb Shoemaker, a patient care technician from Anoka, highlighted after the vote that the new NLRB rules made the election process more fair for workers to have an up or down vote on whether to form their union.
“With the changes in the union election rules, we were able to have a vote on whether we wanted to join SEIU without overwhelming interference,” stated Shoemaker. “Even with the new rules, they tried to scare people out of voting yes and even attempted to stop people from engaging in protected union activity, but I am glad that under new NLRB guidelines we didn’t have to wait weeks longer to have our vote. By voting yes to form our union, our voice will finally be heard.”
The unit will now begin bargaining their first contract with Unity.
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota unites more than 42,000 healthcare and long-term care workers in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and home care throughout the state of Minnesota.