UCSF STANFORD: Health Workers Join Union
More than 1,500 employees at Stanford Hospital and Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital last week voted overwhelmingly to join Service Employees International Union Local 715. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the move marks "the first successful labor organizing attempt at the hospitals" since Stanford University and University of California-San Francisco medical centers merged a year ago into UCSF Stanford Health Care. Employees claim that after last year's merger their workloads increased without concurrent staffing increases or pay raises. Stanford-UCSF CEO Peter Van Etten said, "While we are disappointed by the outcome, we respect the right of our employees to be represented by a union" (Workman, 11/21). The workers -- nursing and lab assistants, emergency room and operating room techs, unit secretaries, food service and housekeeping staff -- voted 770-481 in favor of the measure, culminating the year-long campaign to organize a labor union (SEIU release, 11/20). Click here for past CHL coverage of Stanford employees' unionization efforts.
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