Thursday, December 8, 2016

AFT Beats SEIU in Hospital Election in Washington State




Late last month, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) bested SEIU Local 49 in a head-to-head election for 900 non-union hospital workers in Vancouver, Washington, according to NLRB records and press reports.

Here’s the final tally of the election at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center held November 21-22:


AFT’s Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals:  297 votes
SEIU Local 49:  176 votes
No Union:  171 votes
Challenged Ballots:  24 votes

SEIU barely got more votes than the "No Union" option on the ballot. A runoff election between AFT and SEIU is scheduled for next week on December 14 and 15.

SEIU Local 49 is headed by Meg “I Love the Boss” Niemi, a close ally of SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan. Niemi is also a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board.

For more coverage of the election, see The Colombian (Vancouver, WA), “PeaceHealth Workers to Unionize” (December 7, 2016).