[May 17, 2016] BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – Sixty-four healthcare workers recently voted to strengthen patient care at Dignity Health-owned hospitals in Bakersfield, by joining SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW).

The employees are clinical lab scientists at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, Mercy Memorial Downtown and Mercy Memorial Southwest. They join 15,000 Dignity Health workers who are already members of SEIU-UHW.

With the May 16 election at the Bakersfield facilities, more than 2,100 healthcare workers throughout California have joined SEIU-UHW since April 2015. Just this year, 480 workers voted to join the union at Dignity Health facilities in Santa Maria, Sacramento, Long Beach, Camarillo, Arroyo Grande and Northridge.

The Bakersfield employees will be able to help SEIU-UHW’s campaign to fully fund Medi-Cal, the program that provides health coverage to low-income seniors and people with disabilities in California.

In addition, they can help SEIU-UHW’s statewide ballot initiative to hold hospital executives accountable to taxpayers. The measure would limit hospital executive compensation to $450,000, the same amount earned by the President of the United States. More than 600,000 voter signatures were submitted to election officials last week to qualify the initiative for the Nov. 8, 2016 ballot.