Healthcare Workers Tell Stanford: We Vote Union!

For the last 6 weeks, since Stanford abruptly withdrew recognition of its healthcare workers' union, Stanford has run a campaign to discourage workers from voting for unionization. Making promises that pay and benefits would be the same whether there was a union or not, Stanford pushed its anti-union message on a website purporting to be "educational" for their employees.

Despite Stanford's hostile activities, hospital workers voted 3-to-1 on September 11 to join SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West (SEIU-UHW). When the votes were counted and the victory announced, healthcare workers celebrated that Stanford will now be required recognize the voice of caregivers who have been united in SEIU for more than ten years.
 

Things got heated when
in late July Stanford Hospital claimed that the recent merger of a smaller union with the statewide SEIU-UHW meant they could stop recognizing their workers’ union. 
 Outraged at Stanford's action, workers rallied to regain official recognition and September's vote resulted in victory.


“We formed this union so we’d have a voice to advocate for safe staffing levels and the resources and equipment we need to do our jobs, and Stanford management has used every opportunity they could to take our voice away,” Robert Valenzuela, a patient transporter said when he heard of last Thursday's vote results.
 
"We voted to tell Stanford they can’t keep shutting caregivers out of important patient care decisions.” 
 


State Assembly Speaker pro Tempore Sally Lieber who was part of a group denied access to the hospital to deliver a letter to management in July, was present when the votes were counted last week.
 
"This is a very important outcome for these workers and their families, and also for the community that depends on the quality healthcare they provide,” she said. 
 
“It is going to have a positive impact on healthcare here in South Bay, because the input of frontline caregivers will be taken into account when decisions are made that affect patients and the community."

The union represents about 1,450 housekeepers, food service workers, nursing assistants, phlebotomists, unit secretaries, transporters and employees in non-technical and non-professional roles at the two Palo Alto hospitals.