NUHW won three organizing victories in May, all against employers where workers had already recently joined NUHW and set an example for their compatriots to follow.
Sutter Care at Home: Santa Rosa
In early May, 118 registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, medical social workers, and physical and occupational therapists who work for Sutter Care at Home and provide in-home care services to patients throughout Santa Rosa voted 64-16 to join NUHW.
The workers defeated a heavy anti-union effort from the employer, which many saw as harassment and only strengthened their commitment to unionize. Sutter is now challenging the inclusion of 15 of the workers in the unit, including nurse coordinators and chart completion representatives. The labor board will consider Sutter’s challenge during an upcoming hearing.
“Being part of a union means having a voice instead of staying silent, standing together instead of standing alone, and knowing that respect at work isn’t something we beg for, it’s something we deserve,” said Christine Lota, a licensed vocational nurse.
The Santa Rosa workers join more than 400 Sutter home care and hospice workers who are already NUHW members, including those in Alameda, Concord, San Leandro, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz.
The Santa Rosa workers will join the bargaining table with their counterparts at Sutter Care at Home and two Sutter hospitals, where NUHW members have joined together to fight for contracts that will improve salaries and conditions for patients and workers.
Imperial Beach Community Clinic
Just like professional workers did in January, 58 housekeepers, eligibility enrollment specialists, medical assistants, and security guards who work for the Imperial Beach Community Clinic voted to join NUHW this month. The final vote was 37 to 2.
“I’m very proud of the team we are as a staff and the work we’ve done in the past two years, when we haven’t had a raise,” said Debby Barajas, a housekeeper who has worked at the clinic for the past six years.
Barajas said they keep working hard despite shortstaffing and challenges brought on by management’s decisions.
“We do it because we care about the clinic and its future, even if management doesn’t recognize all the work we do to the point of getting physically hurt,” Barajas said, adding that she and her coworkers also “feel emotional stress because our salaries aren’t simply not enough to make ends meet.”
The workers will now negotiate a contract to secure pay raises, a harassment-free workplace, and job security.
This victory strengthens the power of workers to improve conditions for patients and themselves at the clinic, which serves mainly low-income patients in the San Diego region.
The newly organized caregivers will decide whether to bargain for a new union agreement on their own or join the professional workers in a combined contract campaign effort.
Optum Utilization Management
Also in San Diego, 29 professionals who work for Optum Utilization Management voted by mail ballot to join NUHW, just as their colleagues who work for Optum San Diego Access and Crisis Line did last year.
These workers, who include behavioral care advocates, licensed professional clinical counselors, and licensed clinical social workers, now head to the negotiating table to push for better wages and benefits, a real voice in the workplace, and an end to at-will employment that more than 19,000 other NUHW members already achieved.
