Want to Join 1199?

West Palm Beach, FL – Last night, a majority of the healthcare workers at Good Samaritan Medical Center became the fourth hospital owned by Tenet Healthcare Corporation in seven months to cast a ballot in favor of forming a union with 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. The healthcare workers join unionized workers at St. Mary’s Medical Center (West Palm Beach) and North Shore Medical Center (Miami), which are part of the Tenet chain in Florida.

Mary Harrell, a respiratory therapist at Palmetto General Hospital, said, “As healthcare professionals, we have to think about our families and our future. Being a part of 1199SEIU gives us the opportunity to have many benefits like better wages, more affordable healthcare, fairness, job security and a voice on what matters.”

Since April, 2011, more than 2,500 nurses, technical and service workers at Florida Medical Center, West Boca Medical Center, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, Palmetto General Hospital, and Good Samaritan Medical Center voted overwhelmingly in National Labor Relations Board-sanctioned union elections in favor of forming a union.

“It only makes sense to unionize because it brings more balance and fairness for everyone!” said Patrick Harriott, a transporter at Florida Medical Center, a Tenet facility in Broward County where 300 service and technical workers voted by a 5-to-1 margin to unite with 1199SEIU Florida in May 2011.

The next step for the healthcare workers is to negotiate a first contract with their hospital.

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With 350,000 members in Florida, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington D.C., 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest growing healthcare union in the country. Our mission is to achieve affordable, high quality healthcare for all. 1199SEIU members in Florida have a proven track record of finding common sense solutions to improve the quality of life for all Floridians - from the passage of landmark safe nursing home staffing legislation and increasing the minimum wage to ensuring smaller class sizes for our students.

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