NORTH COUNTY CAREGIVERS JOIN UNITED HEALTHCARE WORKERS

 Oceanside – Healthcare workers at Tri-City Medical Center (TCMC) achieved union recognition Wednesday after officials from the State Mediation & Conciliation Service confirmed that caregivers strongly supported unionization and had collected a super majority of union authorization cards.   

TCMC caregivers become members of SEIU United Healthcare Workers – West and join thousands of other healthcare workers who have achieved industry a voice on the job and improvements in wages and benefits through organizing with UHW.

“With our union, we can finally move forward to make a better hospital for our patients,” said Luis Duenas, an Operating Room Tech at Tri-City Medical Center.  “Now, we have a much stronger voice to improve patient care and recruit and retain the most qualified healthcare workers.”

With their card check victory, more than 500 TCMC service workers were officially certified a part of UHW, the largest union of healthcare workers on the West Coast.

“We are thrilled to join thousands of other healthcare workers as members of UHW,” said Fega Segi, a Certified Nursing Assistant for over 9 years at Tri-City Medical Center.  “It gives us the strength to negotiate a contract that offers caregivers a voice in issues like improving staffing levels and achieving industry standard wages and benefits.”

Recently, California healthcare workers have witnessed successful union organizing victories across the state.  Two weeks ago, over 1000 workers at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood and nine CHW Medical Foundation health clinics in the Sacramento area voted to join UHW.