Nurses at St. Louis University Hospital and Des Peres Hospital have voted to unionize, and collective bargaining talks have begun, with nurses seeking increased pay and improved staffing ratios, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report.
Both hospitals are owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare. SLUH nurses voted by a 3-1 margin to unionize in early June, and roughly 600 registered nurses will now be represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee-Missouri.
About 250 nurses at Des Peres, a 143-bed community hospital, voted to join the same union by a 2-1 margin.
In collective bargaining talks, nurses are seeking increased pay, bonuses and better nursing-patient ratios to improve the quality of care. A principal negotiator for the nurses at SLUH said there is "no set timetable" for an agreement, according to the report.
The national average for unionization is 13 percent of the labor force, but 21 percent of St. Louis' labor force is part of a union, making it one of the most unionized metropolitan areas in the country.
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Both hospitals are owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare. SLUH nurses voted by a 3-1 margin to unionize in early June, and roughly 600 registered nurses will now be represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee-Missouri.
About 250 nurses at Des Peres, a 143-bed community hospital, voted to join the same union by a 2-1 margin.
In collective bargaining talks, nurses are seeking increased pay, bonuses and better nursing-patient ratios to improve the quality of care. A principal negotiator for the nurses at SLUH said there is "no set timetable" for an agreement, according to the report.
The national average for unionization is 13 percent of the labor force, but 21 percent of St. Louis' labor force is part of a union, making it one of the most unionized metropolitan areas in the country.
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