Labor & Employment Law

Houston Nurses Vote for Union?Again

By James Parks

Nurses at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center in Houston reaffirmed their 2008 vote to join a union.

In a dramatic expression of solidarity and support for a stronger voice to speak out for patients and themselves, nearly 300 registered nurses at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center Hospital in Houston voted to remain members of National Nurses Organizing Committee-Texas, the state’s affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU).

The vote defeated a proposal to withdraw the union at the facility, the first private-sector hospital in the state to unionize. The nurses first voted in March 2008 to join the union.

Says Erica Ramhatal, an RN at the medical center:

We stand together to make a better workplace for our patients and for ourselves.  We are so proud to be part of NNU.

Last year a Cypress Fairbanks employee filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking the union’s decertification. Last June the NLRB conducted a decertification election among the same employees. The ballot count was delayed until this week, after several unfair labor practice charges were filed.

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Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on April 30, 2010 (boomark / email).