Union victory in Houston What it could mean for El Paso hospitals How it’s handled in right-to-work

[Omaha Steve]

http://elpasoinc.com/readArticle.aspx?issueid=284&xrec=5213

By Robert Gray



A union victory in Houston late Friday has energized labor leaders in El Paso who are trying to organize Las Palmas and Del Sol Hospitals.

The vote at Houston’s Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center, the first private-sector hospital in Texas to vote for union representation, was the culmination of years of organizing effort by the National Nurses Organizing Committee, or NNOC.

Now nurses in El Paso and statewide are working hard to follow in their footsteps, says Ernesto Soto, a registered nurse in El Paso and union supporter.

“It’s going to crack the ice open and overall has given us hope,” he said.

In addition to the organizing efforts here and in led by the NNOC and the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, the unions filed petitions late Friday with the NLRB to hold a union election at Rio Grande Regional Hospital in McAllen.

NNOC-Texas spokesperson Liz Jacobs said the union has been extremely active in the state.

FULL story at link.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. That's very good news!

Unionized nurses can concentrate on taking good care of their patients much more readily than their non-unionized cohorts.