With an overwhelming 86% majority, the lab professionals employed by the medical lab services company, LabCorp of America, won 7 union elections conducted from May 1st to 3rd. These healthcare professionals chose to join the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP), a local affiliate of the 1.7 million member AFT. They work at labs within seven Legacy Health facilities in Oregon and Washington, including Emanuel, Salmon Creek, and Good Samaritan.
“I am excited that lab professionals at LabCorp have finally won a union and can now advocate for better wages, benefits, and working conditions,” says Meagan Hollis, a medical laboratory scientist working for LabCorp. “When we come together as healthcare professionals, we have the strength to make huge changes that can benefit the future of our entire healthcare system.”
LabCorp workers, which include highly skilled positions such as medical technologists, lab specialists, and phlebotomists, serve at many area hospitals that already include unionized staff. LabCorp owns the labs in multiple hospitals previously owned by Legacy, and when LabCorp took over, workers cited their primary issues as low wages, understaffing, costly health insurance, and not having a voice.
LabCorp’s self-stated policy is to “operate the Company in a non-union environment,” and to ensure that they hired multiple anti-union consultants to try and persuade their lab professionals to not unionize. Now that they have won their union, workers will soon begin negotiating their first union contract, where the future of wages, benefits, and working conditions will be determined in negotiations with LabCorp management.
These lab professionals are the latest in a mass wave of healthcare unionization and worksite victories. Recently, the techs at Legacy Meridian Park, one of the facilities that contracts with LabCorp, unionized with OFNHP, and are currently just beginning to bargain their first union contract. On Monday, the professionals at PeaceHealth Southwest will begin a multi-week vote to determine if they win a union for the almost 300 workers in that classification, including positions such as physical therapists, social workers, and pharmacists. Last year, 1,400 OFNHP represented workers in the PeaceHealth system conducted a five-day strike resulting in historic gains for patients and workers alike. Next year OFNHP will negotiate one of the biggest union contracts of the decade with Kaiser Permanente as part of the 52,000 worker Alliance of Healthcare Unions.