Registered nurses at an Ithaca hospital announced their plans to unionize with the Communication Workers of America last week.
In a statement, Cayuga United said over 70% of Cayuga Medical nurses have signed union authorization cards.
Heather Bretz is a nurse at the hospital and is involved in union organizing.
“If we can better retain experienced, dedicated nurses and pay them a competitive wage and good benefits, we'll be doing a lot towards meeting that goal of better serving our patients,” Bretz told WSKG.
The union is asking hospital management for voluntary recognition, which would mean the nurses wouldn’t need to hold an election to finish establishing the union and start bargaining their first contract.
However, when reached for comment, a hospital representative did not say that Cayuga Medical Center would provide that recognition. Instead, they said Cayuga Medical Center respected nurses' rights to hold a vote on unionization.
“We fully respect their right to pursue a secret ballot vote following National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rules,” the hospital said in a statement.
This is not the first time that nurses at Cayuga Medical Center have tried to unionize. In 2017, the National Labor Relations Board found that the hospital had unlawfully fired two nurses to shut down union activity. The year before, a federal judge found that management had violated labor laws to stop nurses from unionizing.
The push to unionize comes after Cayuga Medical Center joined Arnot Health under parent company Centralus Health in January. The company now oversees over $1 billion in medical services a year.