McKEESPORT, Pa.—Nurses at UPMC McKeesport Hospital near Pittsburgh have voted to keep the Service Employees International Union as their
representative, turning back an effort to decertify it. The Jan. 30 vote went 121-41 in favor of retaining the union, with almost all of the nearly 200 nurses casting ballots. More than 30% of the bargaining-unit nurses had filed a petition for decertification with the National Labor Relations Board in December. Management at the Pittsburgh-based hospital chain, which has been the target of intense organizing by the SEIU, urged nurses to kick the union out, holding meetings in the week before the vote and sending them multiple letters. “Could the money spent on union dues be better spent on your family?” one UPMC executive wrote in a Jan. 4 message. “We believe that we will work best when we can work together without interference by a third party.” Nurse Lyn Musser told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that she hadn’t heard many specific complaints from union opponents. “Some of the things they were concerned about “could be negotiated into a contract, which is what we do,” she said.
