Union Organizing Drive in Fresno - Largest in History

Union Organizing Drive in Fresno - Largest in History
By Mike Rhodes

Over 200 Community Hospital workers and their allies attended a press conference yesterday to announce a union organizing drive to improve working conditions and salaries. Lydia Martinez, a licensed vocational nurse at Community Medical Center, said “it is not right that there are many of us that work at these hospitals who can not afford health insurance for our families. . . there are people who give care all day long, but can’t afford the same care for their own families.”

But, Martinez said her support for the union was not just about the money and benefits. She said “we’re standing up today because we need a voice in making the right decisions for patients at these facilities. By forming a union, we’ll be able to come together to advocate for our patients in partnership with management here.”

Several local elected officials also spoke at the press conference. Fresno City Council member Cynthia Sterling said she was there to “ask Community Medical Center to respect the rights of its care givers to choose for themselves whether to be a union.” Bob Waterston and Susan Anderson from the Fresno County Board of Supervisors and Fresno City Council member Mike Dages hit on the same theme of calling for fair elections that will give the workers an opportunity to decide whether or not to join the union.

“Whether to form a union is a decision for the workers alone to make,” said Anderson. “We’re here today in support of a fair election agreement and to say to Community Medical Centers that we expect its leadership to respect workers’ right to organize.”

Service Employee International Union, United Healthcare Workers - West has been organizing at Community Hospital for about a year. The hospital employs more than 6,000 workers, making this the largest private sector organizing drive in Fresno history. SEIU-UHW has 145,000 members and is the largest hospital and healthcare union in the western United States.

“Forming a union will mean great things not only for the workers, but for the patients at this hospital as well,” said Nick Stancato, a Kaiser Permanente worker and member of SEIU-UHW. “Many of the improvements to patient care that we have made are because of the strength that workers gained by joining UHW. The Fresno community stands to benefit from the decision these hospital workers are making.”

Lydia Martinez said one reason for the organizing drive is that they want Community Hospital to pay competitive salaries and benefits so “we can retain the good employees we have. We want a competitive wage increase for all categories and job descriptions. We have some people working two jobs to make ends meet.”

Community Medical Regional Center representative Michelle Van Valkenburg issued a statement saying “we are committed to keeping our pay practices competitive in the marketplace. Whether employees are represented by the union is a serious question and ultimately up to our employees.” A memo released by Ginny Burdick, Vice President of Human Resources at Community, stated that they had just approved $10 million to increase employee salaries. The memo included a reminder that the salary could not be “unilaterally implemented” to union represented employees. In yet another memo sent out after the press conference, Burdick warned all employees about the dangers of signing union cards.

SEIU-UHW and the workers at Community Hospital who are organizing the union want a neutrality agreement with the hospital. According to the press statement, issued by SEIU-UHW, they want “hospital management to negotiate a Fair Election Agreement with the workers, which require management and the union to respect the employees’ right to decide whether to join the union in an environment free from harassment and intimidation. Workers seek such agreements because healthcare workers trying to form unions routinely face threats and anti-union campaigns from their employers.”

For more information about SEIU UHW call 559 265-4890. Their website is at: http://www.seiu-uhw.org/