Cottage Health registered nurses will formally vote whether to unionize with SEIU 121RN in December.
A formal election date has been scheduled for Dec. 8 and Dec. 9, spokespeople with the union and Cottage Health confirmed to Noozhawk.
All regular full-time, part-time and per diem registered nurses employed at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital will have the chance to vote.
That includes 40 nurses at the Rehabilitation Hospital, 103 nurses at Goleta Valley and 1,153 nurses at Santa Barbara.
Nurses announced their intent to hold a union vote at an Oct. 23 press conference held in front of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
SEIU is a union headquartered in Pasadena that represents over 11,000 registered nurses and healthcare professionals in Southern California. Union dues would be 1.65% of a nurse’s base pay per paycheck.
Standing alongside supporters — including two Santa Barbara City Council members — nurses said they want to unionize because of wage transparency, high costs of living, high pay for executives, and changes to the leave policy.
Nurse Claire Upton said last month that she and her husband live 40 minutes from the hospital because they cannot afford to live in Santa Barbara.
“Unfortunately, I am one of the first in my family who is coming to terms with the fact that I may never be able to afford to live in Santa Barbara because Cottage does not compensate me enough to keep up with the cost of living,” Upton said.
Tatiana Speier, a five-year Cottage nurse who works in the emergency room, said last month that many nurses live “paycheck to paycheck.”
Nurses work three 12-hour shifts a week. Most Cottage nurses are classified under the position of Clinical Nurse 2. Pay for that position ranges from $59.57 to $89 an hour. The average Clinical Nurse 2 makes $68.62 an hour.
Their wages are assessed annually based on data from the Southern California market and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reimbursement rate, Cottage spokespeople told Noozhawk last month. They are given market- and merit-based raises every year.
Nurses have also said they feel as though their concerns about compensation, staffing, benefits and workplace decisions haven’t been heard through the existing workplace channels.
Cottage has a shared-governance system: a council of interprofessional staff that are elected by their peers that discusses and elevates concerns and requests.
It’s unclear exactly how many nurses are in favor of or against unionization at this time.
At least 30% of nurses signed union cards in support of a union — the minimum required to file for an election — union spokespeople said last month.
They declined to release exact numbers.
Registered nurse Reyna Estrada-Rioux told Noozhawk on Friday that this is a “monumental” vote.
“We’re definitely excited, but also apprehensive,” she said. “We are the union… The people out there, every single day, we’re all nurses with varying degrees and experience… it would be nice if the actual working nurses on the floor had a formal say in the process. We really just want a contract.”
She said she also wanted to dispel a belief that the union is a “third outside party.”
She emphasized: “It’s not us against Cottage. It’s us wanting to formally recognize our part… and have a formal process through which we can participate.”
Sarah Grey, a Cottage nurse of 17 years, and Alexis Alcantar, who has been with Cottage for seven years, told Noozhawk on Friday that they are against unionizing at Cottage.
Alcantar said she is supportive of the Cottage benefits, like subsidized housing, childcare and down payment assistance programs.
According to @cottagenursesunion, an Instagram account advocating for unionization, 35 registered nurses (2.9%) own houses at Bella Riviera, a Cottage for-sale condominium community with 81 workforce and 31 market-rate homes.
Alcantar said she purchased a home using Cottage’s down payment loan assistance program and received tuition reimbursement for her bachelor’s degree and a scholarship for her master’s degree.
“This is where I felt the most supported in my nursing career,” she said, adding that she doesn’t believe Cottage Hospital has been given the opportunity to properly address concerns.
Grey agreed, stating that she believes Cottage offers “great benefits” and “comparable and competitive” pay.
“Our workplace is not at a place where a union could make it better,” she said, adding that she was concerned about losing benefits through contract negotiations.
Cottage Hospital spokespeople have urged nurses to vote no on the union.
In emails sent out to nurses and viewed by Noozhawk, CEO Scott Wester asked nurses to “continue to share your voice directly within Cottage” Health.
Cottage Chief Nursing Officer Laura Canfield told Noozhawk on Friday that Cottage has heard “loud and clear” that involving nurses in decision-making at a “new level” is important to the staff.
She said Cottage is “committed to looking at new ways to evolve the current way that we talk to each other,” including by modifying the existing shared governance system.
“We are eager to implement those ideas and believe that will help us face the challenges across professional nursing today in a way that only direct partnership can,” Canfield said.
To form a union, 50%+1 of voters must vote yes.
Nurses will vote on whether to form one union across three locations, a union spokesperson and a Cottage spokesperson confirmed.
At Goleta Valley Hospital, nurses will be able to vote in conference room A/B on Dec. 8 between 6-10 a.m., 11 a.m.–2 p.m. and 5-8:30 p.m.; and on Dec. 9 between 6-10 a.m. and 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
At Santa Barbara Hospital, nurses will be able to vote in the Ron Werst Auditorium on both days at those same times.
At the Rehabilitation Hospital, the vote will only be held on Dec. 8 in the Meisel Conference Room, 6-8:30 a.m., 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m., and 6-8:30 p.m.
Those specific times are set to allow nurses to vote when they’re leaving work, arriving at work or when they have a break, according to Estrada-Rioux.
