Nurses Win Vote for Union at Newton Memorial Hospital

In a vote count supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Newark on August 13, Registered Nurses from Newton Memorial Hospital voted 130 to 120 in favor of unionizing at the hospital.

The vote count came after months of delay and legal challenges by hospital management over the eligibility of more than 90 nurses to vote in the NLRB union election. Most of the challenges were turned aside by the NLRB, and the vote count finally took place on Thursday, 3 months after the election was held on May 14. Of 290 nurses finally eligible to vote, 250 voted in an election to decide whether or not to join the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), NJ’s largest union of nurses and healthcare professionals.

“We’ve come so far, and worked so hard to gain a voice for all of the nurses at NMH,” said Kendra Doran, an ER nurse at NMH. “We are looking forward to the process of forming our union, and discussing with all of the nurses how to improve and build on our excellent nursing care here at Newton. Our union will be for all of the nurses, regardless of how they voted, and we want all of the nurses to have a voice and be represented.”