About 200 nurses will now be unionized after nurses at Benedictine hospital voted 110-56 in favor of union representation by the New York State Nurses Association.
The unionizing effort was contentious, with workers alleging anti-union tactics by the hospital administration. The hospital hired management representation firm Clifton Budd & DeMaria, which counts union prevention among its specialties, but the union effort was strongly supported by organizers from the State Nurse”™s Association.
The nurses voted on Sept. 18, but the results remained uncounted pending a resolution of an appeal Benedictine made to the National Labor Relations Board. The hospital was appealing an August decision by the NLRB”™s regional office that permitted the Benedictine Hospital nurses to hold a vote on whether to unionize The votes were finally counted Nov. 11 and announced the next day.
Benedictine Hospital is merging with Kingston Hospital and hospital administrators had argued that the Benedictine vote should not be allowed pending finalizing that merger. Now, it seems likely that Kingston nurses will also seek a vote to join or not join the union.
