Memorial admits NUHW won majority; elected officials urge hospital to stop delays

Melissa Bosanco, Care Partner at Santa Rosa Memorial“There’s no question that my co-workers and I are joining NUHW. We voted NUHW because we want a voice to make our hospital a better place to work and a better place for our community to get care.”

Both Memorial Hospital management and NUHW have agreed to accept a determination by the federal government that resolves the question of 13 challenged ballots and gives NUHW an absolute majority.

Memorial Hospital management is still pressing forward with objections to the election, claiming that workers were confused when they voted for union representation. Those objections could be dismissed within weeks.

Elected officials and religious leaders have called on hospital management to drop its objections, including Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, State Senators Mark Leno and Pat Wiggins, Assemblymembers Jared Huffman, Noreen Evans, and Wes Chesbro, local Catholic leader Monsignor John Brenkle, and former Sister of St. Joseph of Orange JoAnn Consiglieri.

We won our election! Memorial workers join NUHW after six-year struggle

Santa Rosa, Calif.—Caregivers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital voted to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers today in an election victory that caps their six-year struggle to win a voice at work.

[Download a leaflet in English and Spanish to share this news with your co-workers]

“We are all so excited to finally have a voice to make our hospital a better place to work and better for our community,” said Nancy Timberlake, a telemetry technician at the hospital. “We stuck together for six years and we finally did it. I’m so relieved and so happy that we won.”

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Press-Democrat: Memorial vote starts today

Two competing unions, plus no-union are on ballot at SR’s biggest hospital

By MARTIN ESPINOZA & Kevin McCallum

After almost six years of labor organizing, health care workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital begin voting today on whether or not they should be represented by a union.

“I’m so excited,” said Melissa Bosanco, a care partner in Memorial’s ontology unit…

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KPFA Morning Show covers our election

Telemetry Technician Nancy Timberlake and Radiology Technologist Jack Nicholson talk about tomorrow’s election at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

Source: KPFA Morning Show

Clergy and political leaders to monitor election campaign at Memorial Hospital

Fr. Ray Decker of Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice announces the Fair Election Oversight CommissionA group of prominent political leaders, scholars, and religious leaders have formed a commission to protect workers’ rights in the hotly contested Dec. 17 union vote at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

The 17-member Fair Election Oversight Commission includes Santa Rosa City Councilmember Veronica Jacobi and will be chaired by Monsignor John Brenkle and JoAnn Consiglieri. Brenkle is the pastor of St. Helena Catholic Church; Consiglieri is a former member of Memorial Hospital’s founding order, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange.

Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice has called the anti-union campaign by management at Santa Rosa Memorial “a violation of Catholic Social Teaching on workers’ rights.”

Memorial workers: Click here for a leaflet on how to report unfair campaigning by management or another union.

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Catholic Scholars urge Memorial Hospital administration to stop anti-union campaign

Dr. Joe Fahey of Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice writes:

“We are deeply alarmed at reports that SJHS has reverted to an earlier form of behavior and is actively seeking to bust the union movement at Santa Rosa. It is a violation of Catholic Social Teaching on workers’ rights for an employer to demonstrate anti-union sentiments. The decision for or against a union is rooted in the natural right of free association and the employer may under no circumstances violate or denigrate this right through actions or conversations with workers that have a clear anti-union prejudice.”

Read the full letter.

Beyond Chron: SEIU Joins Management in Blocking Union Drive

Randy Shaw writes in today’s Beyond Chron:

“Few could have imagined one year ago that SEIU’s number one hospital organizing drive in 2009 would focus on preventing workers from joining a union. … It is obvious from SEIU’s messaging that it knows it has no chance of winning majority support on December 17, and that its real goal is getting workers to vote for ‘no union’ rather than for NUHW.”

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Monsignor John Brenkle responds to SEIU's refusal of mediation

Local Catholic leader Monsignor John Brenkle today said that SEIU officials are “waging an anti-union campaign” against workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, after SEIU rejected an offer by Brenkle and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich to help set ground rules for our election.

“Not only has the SEIU itself been waging an anti-union campaign against the NUHW, but SEIU’s refusal to negotiate ground rules has given management at Memorial Hospital the freedom to continue the same anti-union practices we have been working for so long to prevent.”

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KSRO-AM: Msgr. John Brenkle and Care Partner Melissa Bosanco live on "The Drive"

Click the play button to hear Monsignor John Brenkle, pastor of St. Helena Catholic Church, and Care Partner Melissa Bosanco talk about our union effort on KSRO-AM’s drive-time show.

Election scheduled at Santa Rosa Memorial; SEIU folds under community pressure

Melissa Bosanco, care partner

“I’m so glad the delay is over. Now we can form our union with NUHW and focus on what’s important: making our hospital a better place to work and a better place for our patients.”

After six months of obstruction by a rival organization, victory is in sight for caregivers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. The labor board today scheduled our union election for Dec. 17 and 18.

A majority of us chose NUHW on April 13, when we filed a petition with the labor board requesting an election to form their union. A rival organization, SEIU-UHW, twice obstructed the labor board’s process by filing frivolous charges that were ultimately rejected.

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