The California Nurses Association added about 550 registered nurses from 21 Kaiser Permanente hospitals across northern and central California.
CNA said in a news release that the nurses, who serve as patient care coordinators, voted in January to affiliate with the union in an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB recently certified the election results —240 to 218 in favor of unionization. The union said the decision overruled objections from Kaiser.
"I'm very excited to join CNA to get the strong voice that we deserve," Margaret Lao, RN, a patient care coordinator at Kaiser San Leandro, said in the release.
In response to the decision, Debora Catsavas, senior vice president of human resources at Kaiser, said: "We greatly value our patient care coordinators and the work they do. We are awaiting a pending NLRB decision on the original election petition. We look forward to the resolution for our patient care coordinators."
CNA now represents 19,000 California RNs, according to thr release.