Major Organizing Victories in California and New Mexico

1199NM members have something to shout about as they celebrate the membership vote at St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe.

By Maida Odom

Organizing victories won by United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) and our New Mexico affiliate District 1199NM have added more than 1,000 new members to NUHHCE.

Nearly 800 nurses at Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California facilities join with more than 10,000 other nurses, optometrists and physician assistants who are already UNAC/UHCP members at Kaiser Permanente. The election was held on March 2.

“Now that 800 more nurses at Kaiser Permanente have joined UNAC/UHCP, the voices of health care professionals are even stronger andwe can have an even bigger role in helping Kaiser Permanente be the best place to get care and to work,” said NUHHCE Secretary-Treasurer Kathy J. Sackman, RN, UNAC/ UHCP president.

“March 2, 2007 starts a new era for the hard-working and devoted members of this union,” says Scott Bryant, RN, a discharge planner at Kaiser Permanente South Bay.” We were the only group of nurses not in a union, and we want a voice to negotiate for the wages and job security that will help us recruit and retain nurses.”

The nurses joined our union by majority sign-up, whereby they simply indicated their desire to join the union by signing union authorization cards and then the signatures were checked by a neutral third party. Kaiser Permanente honored their choice. The majority sign-up process is a fairer alternative to the often unfair, contentious union election process.

In 1997 Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions (of which UNAC/ UHCP is a part) agreed to allow new units of workers to choose by majority sign-up.

Since then, nurses at Kaiser Permanente Orange County, optometrists, and some groups of physician assistants have joined UNAC/UHCP by signing union authorization cards.

At St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, 1199NM won the right to represent 290 service and maintenance workers in a campaign where workers feared management reprisals.

NUHHCE Organizer Henry Santana was quoted in the Santa Fe New Mexican saying that maintenance and nonprofessional employees want a union because they feel they lack job protection. They have already complained that they don’t have the equipment to do their jobs and that the working conditions are deteriorating. They also say supervisors don’t show respect for employees.

1199NM already has 600 members, mostly nurses and technicians, at St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. It is currently in the process of holding elections and expects to begin negotiating a contract in April.

In addition, 1199NM will be holding an affiliation vote at University Hospital in Albuquerque on March 22 for the 1200 service, maintenance and clerical workers. 1199NM now represents the nurses, technical and professional units at University Hospital.