Healthcare employees across Sharp Metropolitan Campus in San Diego have voted to join SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.
The election, which took place July 16-18, covers more than 2,000 front-line workers at Sharp Memorial Hospital, Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns, Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital, Sharp Allison deRose Rehabilitation Center, and James S. Brown Pavilion, according to the union.
Seventy percent of the workers voted in favor of unionizing, according to SEIU-UHW.
"Now that we're union, we'll be able to stand up and speak up for our patients and this community," Cheryl Okuboye, a licensed psychiatric technician at Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital, said in a news release. "With this victory, we'll have the strength to win safer staffing, better patient care, and good jobs across Sharp."
The parent organization of Sharp Metropolitan Campus, Sharp HealthCare, shared the following statement with Becker's: "Sharp HealthCare respects the outcome of the vote and our employees' right to organize, and we look forward to negotiating a contract that is acceptable to both parties."
The vote applies to certified nursing assistants, respiratory care practitioners, pharmacy technicians, patient transporters, mental health workers, licensed psychiatric technicians, environmental service workers, healthcare partners, licensed vocational nurses, MRI technologists, ultrasound technicians, rehabilitation aides, anesthesia technicians, radiologic technologists, surgical technologists, sterile processing technicians, lab technicians, nursing unit clerks, supply distribution technicians and others.
Overall, SEIU-UHW represents about 100,000 healthcare workers in California.