FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 1, 2025

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Healthcare workers across Sharp Coronado Hospital have voted overwhelmingly to improve patient care and jobs by joining SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), a union of 120,000 healthcare workers across California. The election took place on April 30 and covers over 450 frontline workers at Sharp Coronado Hospital.

These workers join over 5,000 workers at Sharp Metropolitan Campus, Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center, Sharp Grossmont Hospital, and Sharp HospiceCare who previously voted to join SEIU-UHW and won a historic union contract in November.

“We’re so proud to join the thousands and thousands of healthcare workers throughout this region who are unionizing,” said Linda Dabu a licensed vocational nurse at Sharp Villa Coronado. “We work in the most expensive city in the nation, and many healthcare workers can’t afford to live in this community because our wages just haven’t kept up. Now that we’re union, we’ll be able to win safer staffing, better patient care, and good jobs here.”

The victory was overwhelming: 66 percent of the workers voting supported joining SEIU-UHW.

The vote applies to a variety of job classes, including licensed vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants, respiratory care practitioners, surgical techs, sterile processing techs, healthcare partners, anesthesia techs, certified phlebotomy techs, endoscopy techs, pharmacy techs, patient access services reps, distribution techs, imaging assistants, lab assistants, materials techs, rehabilitation aides, and other frontline healthcare workers.

Throughout the San Diego area, healthcare workers are unionizing in record numbers. In addition to the 5,500 workers across Sharp HealthCare who have voted to join SEIU-UHW, 550 Planned Parenthood workers and nearly 400 dialysis workers in the region have done so recently. Currently, about 250 healthcare workers at Sharp Staffing Resource Network are voting to join SEIU-UHW, and more groups of Sharp workers are expected to vote in union elections soon.

Last November, over 5,000 SEIU-UHW members across Sharp HealthCare won one master union contract, which includes pay increases of up to 34% over three years, major improvements to medical benefits, and a strong voice for workers in staffing and patient care.

“We’re not stopping at Sharp,” said Alicia Bradley, an anesthesia technician at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital. “I know healthcare workers at other facilities in San Diego. They’ve seen how much our new contract improves things for patients, workers, and this whole community, and they’re ready to join us in SEIU-UHW.”

According to its financial disclosures, Sharp Healthcare made net income of $495.7 million in 2023. Sharp HealthCare’s CEO made $2.6 million in compensation in 2023.

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Media Contact: [email protected]

SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is a healthcare justice union of more than 120,000 healthcare workers, patients, and healthcare activists united to ensure affordable, accessible, high-quality care for all Californians, provided by valued and respected healthcare workers.