Technical workers at Rochester General Hospital have voted to unionize – the latest in a growing organized labor movement within the health center.
The vote adds 290 workers to the rapidly growing Rochester Union of Nurses and Allied Professionals (RUNAP).
RUNAP now represents about 1,400 workers at RGH – about 15% of the hospital workforce -- across nurses, midwives, and technical workers, according to a union organizer.
Labor unionization in healthcare is at a record high nationwide, fueled by consolidation, profit-driven ownership, burnout and “aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic,” research shows.
“We've seen it industry after industry, when people have had enough and they form a union, they get a collective bargaining agreement behind them, their life is so much better,” said Dan Maloney, president of the Rochester Labor Council and Rochester & Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation.
Included among the new union members are surgical technologists, respiratory therapists, medical laboratory technicians, and licensed practical nurses, to name a few. The union representation applies to all full-time, part-time, and per diem workers at RGH, which is part of Rochester Regional Health.
In all, 199 ballots were cast in the union vote Monday, with 145 voting in favor of unionizing. The vote for midwives’ representation under RUNAP took place in January, with all seven employees voting in favor of unionizing.
RUNAP was born in 2023 and has seen extraordinary growth in the years since. In the pandemic era, the hospital began experiencing significant staff shortages, with some units seeing nearly three-quarters of its full-time positions vacant. Those gaps were largely filled by travel nurses.
With the addition of the technical professionals, RUNAP now represents about 1,400 workers at RGH across nurses, midwives, and technical workers, according to a union organizer at the hospital.
The vote for midwives’ representation under RUNAP took place in January, with all seven employees voting in favor of unionizing.
“These nurses, in general, were pretty much overworked and underpaid,” said Dan Maloney, President of the Rochester Labor Council and Rochester & Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation, referring to the original formation of RUNAP. “Just to keep it boiled down to its simplest form, and they'd had enough, and they were not valued by the employer, so they formed a union.”
RUNAP is still making efforts to grow its roster of unionized employees. Just a day after the technical workers vote, the union filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a union vote to add 80 workers at Rochester Regional Health urgent care centers across the Finger Lakes. That vote would include physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and registered nurses.
“Poll after poll shows, if given a free, fair choice, workers would overwhelmingly choose a union. They got to push through the obstacles,” Maloney said. “The employers are always fighting the workers, and it's unbelievable. But of course, owners tend to be greedy.”
Since 2023, 32 cases against RGH have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board. Among the allegations are retaliation, coercive statements, and refusal to provide information.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Rochester General Hospital said it respects the results of the vote and the rights of its workers to organize.
"Our priority remains unchanged: supporting our team members and ensuring safe, high-quality care for the patients and communities we serve," the statement reads. "We will engage constructively and in good faith as the process moves forward."
RUNAP is now the second largest union for medical professionals in the Rochester area. At the University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester Regional Health’s rival health system, about 1,800 workers are represented by 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.
While that union represents a variety of staff at URMC, including cooks, nursing assistants, and patient care technicians, that healthcare system’s nurses and other medical professionals are not unionized.
