Unity Hospital workers vote to unionize

Workers at Unity Hospital in Fridley, Minn., have voted to unionize.

The vote Tuesday authorized the Service Employees International Union to represent nearly 350 nursing assistants and other employees.

Nursing Assistant Julie Scharber, who started the organizing effort in January, hopes collective bargaining will improve wages and working conditions at the Allina Health hospital.

"We wanted to have better health care [and] better benefits," she said. "We were all wanting to improve the staffing ratio at the hospital and then as this progressed, we wanted to, with all the changes that were happening at the hospital ... have a voice regarding those changes."

Union leaders say new National Labor Relations Board rules that speed up the voting process helped them win the organizing effort. About 60 percent of the workers voted to unionize.

In a statement, Allina Health officials said they respect the decision and hope those who favored joining the union can work with those who voted no.