Baltimore County Council Backs Fair Union Elections for Caregivers

For Immediate Release    
Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Media Contact: Jim McNeill
C 202-213-1614, O 443-449-2054

Both Baltimore County and City Council have now passed resolutions calling for fair, secret ballot union elections for local healthcare workers

Passed 6-0, resolution aims to protect quality patient care and ensure living wages in county’s biggest industry, healthcare, which has 15% of jobs

Monday’s vote comes less than two weeks before major healthcare workers’ rally in downtown Baltimore on June 24^th with Danny Glover, other special guests

TOWSON, Md. — The Baltimore County Council passed a resolution Monday endorsing free and fair union elections for all hospital and nursing home workers in every facility throughout the county. The resolution, which passed 6-0, calls on healthcare employers to work together with caregivers to ensure quality care and quality jobs in Baltimore County. The Baltimore City Council passed a similar resolution in October.

Healthcare is Baltimore County’s biggest industry, employing 15 percent of workers, so raising job standards in healthcare would help create more middle class jobs and strengthen the county’s economy.

“For the first time ever, Baltimore County and Baltimore City have joined together to support healthcare workers seeking a strong, unified voice to advocate for their patients,” said John Reid, executive vice president of the Maryland/DC division of 1199SEIU, the state’s largest healthcare union. “This vote is a testament to the vision of county legislators and all the hard work caregivers have done in the Heart of Baltimore campaign.”

The Heart of Baltimore campaign began last fall, when more than 150 healthcare workers from across the county and city came together to talk about how to win better care and better jobs by uniting in 1199SEIU. The campaign will mount its first major public event on Thursday, June 24, when hundreds of caregivers and supporters will gather in downtown Baltimore’s Mt. Vernon Square for a rally with actor and activist Danny Glover and other special guests.

Healthcare workers from various local facilities have tried to form unions in the past, but they have repeatedly been intimidated and harassed by employers when they’ve done so.

“Our employee handbook actually pressures us not to unite with other caregivers in a union,” said Rosemary Johnson, a geriatric nursing assistant at Manorcare’s Ruxton nursing home. “This resolution supports our right to have a voice for our patients, our families and our community.”

The Heart of Baltimore campaign is the biggest organizing effort by local caregivers since 1969, when Coretta Scott King came to Baltimore and helped thousands of caregivers win dramatic improvements by forming a union. Caregivers and organizers with the Heart of Baltimore have reached out to more than 4,000 healthcare workers and public supporters about the campaign. This spring, the campaign launched a massive ad blitz, mailing 40,000 postcards to Baltimore-area residents, running radio spots on seven local stations and placing more than 40 billboards at kiosks in Penn Station and on bus shelters across the metro area.

1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East represents more than 340,000 healthcare workers throughout Maryland, Washington, D.C., New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. It is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in America. In Maryland and D.C., we represent over 10,000 healthcare workers in a wide range of job classifications throughout hospitals, nursing homes and homecare.