Cooley Dickinson Hospital Technical Workers Join 1199SEIU

About 100 technical workers win voice for quality care and good jobs by joining state’s largest and fastest growing healthcare union

Northampton, MA (August 11, 2017) – Technical workers at Cooley Dickinson Hospital voted to join 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the largest and fastest growing healthcare union in Massachusetts. Cooley Dickinson Hospital is located in Northampton and is part of Partners HealthCare.

The unit of about 100 technical workers includes medical lab technicians, CV techs and respiratory therapists.

“I believe that joining 1199SEIU is important to help technical employees like me respond to changes in the healthcare industry and advocate to protect our professional standards,” said Suzanne Sauer, a CV Interventional Tech at Cooley Dickinson Hospital for ten years.

"We’re proud that technical workers at Cooley Dickinson Hospital joined together and now have the opportunity to utilize their collective voice to advocate for quality care and quality jobs to benefit patients and communities throughout the region,” said Tyrék D. Lee, Sr., Executive Vice President of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. “We’re pleased to welcome our new Cooley Dickinson sisters and brothers into our 1199SEIU family. We look forward to working together to provide quality care and ensure that all workers have access to good jobs, fair wages and a voice in the workplace.”

The service and technical workers at Cooley Dickinson Hospital participated in a free and fair election process that began on May 15 and allowed workers to make their own decisions about whether or not to join 1199SEIU. The units voted in separate, secret-ballot elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.

About 300 service workers also voted to join 1199SEIU. The result of the technical unit’s vote was determined following the resolution of ballot challenges.

The Cooley Dickinson Hospital service workers are among hundreds of additional healthcare workers who recently voted to join 56,000 1199SEIU members in Massachusetts and over 400,000 members on the East Coast.

In March, approximately 500 service workers at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in Boston, also a Partners HealthCare facility, and 80 technical workers at Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, part of the Steward Health Care System, joined 1199SEIU. Over 40 workers at Brockton Visiting Nurses Association joined 1199SEIU in October 2016, and over 200 workers at Medical Resources, a private home care agency based in Newton, voted to join the union in May 2015.

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Representing more than 56,000 healthcare workers throughout Massachusetts and over 400,000 workers on the East Coast, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in America. Our mission is to achieve affordable, high quality healthcare for all. 1199SEIU is part of the 2.1 million member Service Employees International Union.

In the News:

Technical workers to join union at Cooley Dickinson Hospital by Caitlin Ashworth | Daily Hampshire Gazette | August 11, 2017