[Jan. 24, 2020] RIVERSIDE, Calif. – More than 100 healthcare workers in Riverside, Calif. will see their job conditions improve after voting Jan. 23 to unite in SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), a union of 97,000 healthcare workers in California.

“Every worker wants to be valued and treated with respect and that is always easier to achieve when we can speak with one voice,” said Jennifer Erickson, an occupational therapist at Riverside Community Hospital, which is owned by HCA Healthcare. “By having a unified voice, we can improve wages and job conditions and strengthen the quality patient care we provide every day.”

More than 68 percent of the workers voting at Riverside Community Hospital supported joining the union. The vote applies to physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, social workers, pharmacists and clinical lab scientists.

They join 960 employees at Riverside Community Hospital who are already members of SEIU-UHW, and an additional 2,100 workers at HCA Healthcare’s four other California hospitals who are members of the union. Workers across those five facilities are renegotiating a contract with the corporation; their current agreement expires March 31, 2020.

HCA Healthcare was founded in 1968 and reported revenues of $46.6 billion in 2018. The corporation owns hospitals in 20 states and employs 250,000 people.