Hospital union workers vote to keep Service Employees

Michelle Swafford

Monday, Dec. 22, 2003 | 10:59 a.m.

An attempt by an employee to remove the Service Employees International Union Local 1107 as a bargaining agent at Desert Springs Hospital was rejected as most of the union-covered workers voted to keep the union, officials announced Friday.

The vote affected 103 technicians and licensed practical nurses. There were 52 votes in favor of the union and 44 against the union, the National Labor Relations Board office in Las Vegas reported.

Any party involved with the vote can file, within a week, a protest of the election and the election procedures, said Stephen Wamser, NLRB deputy regional attorney.

He said typically the losing party makes the protest, which in this case would be Desert Springs or the employee who filed the petition. One week after the election, the NLRB will certify the election results as official if there are no protests.

Hospital Chief Executive Carl Fitch said Friday, "At this point Desert Springs Hospital does not intend to challenge any of the votes from last night's decertification election."

A Desert Springs employee filed a petition June 23 with the National Labor Relations Board office in Las Vegas to remove the SEIU as the hospital's bargaining representative. The petition said at least 30 percent of the technicians and licensed practical nurses supported the request to remove the union's representation. The employee who filed the petition could not be reached for comment.

Tom Beatty, executive director of the SEIU Local 1107, said it is unclear why some employees did not want the union to represent them, but it is clear from the election results that the majority did want union representation.

"The workers reaffirmed their commitment to the collective-bargaining process and unions," Beatty said. "The only guarantees they're going to have and the only voice they're going to have is through the union. The only guarantees they have is in a written contract, not promises by an employer."

A contract had already been negotiated for the Desert Springs' technicians and licensed practical nurses and is effective now that the vote to keep the union is over.

Beatty said the SEIU Local 1107 plans to unionize health care workers throughout the valley. Currently, the SEIU represents 12,000 Clark County employees, of which 7,000 are health care workers.

The SEIU represents all non-management health care workers at University Medical Center, Sunrise Hospital and Sunrise Children's Hospital. The union represents the registered nurses at Valley and Desert Springs and health care employees at the Clark County Health District.

Technicians at Valley Hospital voted against SEIU representation in August 2002.

Employees at MountainView, Spring Valley, Lake Mead and Summerlin hospitals do not have union representation. There is an effort to unionize about 600 nurses at St. Rose Dominican Hospital's two campuses: Siena and Rose de Lima. The election has been postponed because the hospital is accused of coercing, intimidating and threatening nurses to influence their votes. California-based Catholic Healthcare West owns St. Rose and has several unionized hospitals in California.

The SEIU filed a complaint with the NLRB office on Oct. 31, one week before the election was scheduled to take place. The NLRB is investigating the complaint.

The SEIU is the only union in Clark County that represents health care employees and is one of the largest health care representatives in the nation. About 750,000 health care workers are members nationally.

The SEIU locally represents a mixture of hospital owners. HCA Inc. owns Sunrise and MountainView hospitals. Universal Health Services Inc. owns Desert Springs, Summerlin, Valley and Spring Valley hospitals. Tenet Healthcare Inc. owns Lake Mead Hospital. Clark County owns University Medical Center.