Healthcare workers at Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, Massachusetts have voted overwhelmingly to join 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.

Nashoba Valley Medical Center employees who participated in the vote to join 1199SEIU included 170 business, office, clerical, and service workers.

“We all love working at Nashoba Valley Medical Center, but we wanted to come together to have a united voice and have a union” said Susan Roberts a secretary in the Cardiology unit who has worked at the hospital for ten years. “Our patient care is our top priority, and we feel like we can better represent them and ourselves by being a part of 1199SEIU.”

Nashoba Valley Medical Center, a part of the Steward Heath Care, is a 73-bed facility serving Central Northern Massachusetts. Workers at seven other facilities currently operated by Steward Health Care have voted to join 1199SEIU and have successfully negotiated a range of improvements to jobs within the state’s largest network of community hospitals.Those facilities include: St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center; Norwood Hospital; Morton Hospital; Merrimack Valley Hospital; Holy Family Hospital; Good Samaritan Medical Center; and Carney Hospital.

“When healthcare workers have a voice at work through 1199SEIU, it’s a benefit to workers, patients and the community. Our mission is to ensure quality care and quality jobs across Massachusetts. It’s exciting to see that Nashoba workers overwhelmingly want to be a part of that,” said Veronica Turner, 1199SEIU Executive Vice President.

1199SEIU is the largest healthcare workers union in Massachusetts with 50,000 members, and the fastest growing union in the state.