For Immediate Release
Monday, October 22, 2001
Healthcare Workers Pick AFSCME/SEIU in Historic First Union Election for State Employees
Frankfort, KY —In the first-ever union election in Kentucky history for state workers, healthcare employees have chosen the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, and Service Employees International Union to represent them in talks with Gov. Paul Patton's administration.
Patton's executive order issued in May gives employees the right to negotiate benefits, pay and working conditions.
"We are excited about the resounding vote for our union," said Melinda Kimmel, an LPN from Western State Hospital in Hopkinsville, Ky. "Now we're eager to get to the table and negotiate for affordable health insurance, better pay and other issues of fairness." Healthcare Workers United, an alliance of AFSCME and SEIU, won 76 percent of the ballots for the group of 1,700 workers.
Rank and file healthcare workers took the lead in the campaign, convincing their co-workers that AFSCME/SEIU is the most experienced voice for state employees.
AFSCME Kentucky Organizing Director Carolyn Klinglesmith noted the large margin of victory in urging other state employees to rally around the AFSCME-led coalition. "Having a single, united organization for all Kentucky state employees just makes good sense," she said. An opposing coalition led by the American Federation of Teachers garnered only 74 votes from healthcare workers, fewer than the "no union" option.
Klinglesmith also announced that state employees who work in social services petitioned today for a union election with AFSCME. Ballots will be mailed out to the 5,000 employees in this group, the third unit of employees that AFSCME has filed to represent, on November 27. Union ballots for corrections workers will be counted on November 6, and AFSCME is unopposed on that ballot.
Patton's executive order of May 18 gives 30,000 state workers the right to negotiate for pay, benefits and improved working conditions. The AFSCME-led coalition is active in five of the nine categories of employment defined by the executive order. AFSCME represents more than 1.3 million public-sector workers nationwide, and with SEIU is among the fastest growing unions in America.
