[Feb. 26, 2016] LOS ANGELES – Ninety healthcare workers voted to improve patient care at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, Calif. by joining SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW).

The St. Mary Medical Center employees include social workers, case managers, medical record coders, medical records clerks, office assistants, family educators, dental hygienists, utilization review coordinators, secretaries, parent coaches, community outreach program specialists, benefit specialists, assistant care coordinators, referral authorization representatives, patient account representatives, receptionists, medical assistants, dental assistants, drivers/couriers and accounting clerks.

With the Feb. 24 election at St. Mary Medical Center, more than 1,700 hospital workers throughout California have joined SEIU-UHW over the last year. Other victories this month include 110 health educators from Kaiser Permanente in Northern California and 52 workers at Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, Calif.

Established in 1923, St. Mary Medical Center is a 389-bed hospital. It has 600 physicians and more than 1,350 employees, of whom 526 were already members of SEIU-UHW.

By joining the union, the St. Mary 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, St. Mary employees can help SEIU-UHW’s campaign to pass a statewide ballot initiative that would gradually raise California’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021. Union members submitted nearly 550,000 voter signatures to election officials across California last month to qualify the measure for the Nov. 8, 2016 ballot. More than 275 elected officials, faith leaders, small business owners, community organizations and labor unions have endorsed the ballot initiative.