More than 600 nurses at one of the largest hospitals in Kansas could unionize

Nurses at one of the biggest hospitals in Kansas have filed a form seeking to unionize.

The petition was filed with the National Labor Relations Board by the National Nurses Organizing Committee on behalf of 625 full- and part-time nurses employed by Ascension Via Christi St. Francis in Wichita.

If the petition is approved, St. Francis nurses could be included in National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the U.S. with 180,000 members, according to their website. About 1,000 nurses in Kansas and Missouri are union members, according to a union email.

Nurses will vote on whether to join the union. A date has not been set for that vote, the union said in an email.

It is unknown how many nurses out of the 625 signed the petition. Ascension spokesperson Roz Hutchinson said Via Christi did not have that number. A union email said it did not have any additional information to share.

“We have received notice of the petition and are still evaluating our response to this action,” Ascension Via Christi CEO Kevin Strecker said in an email statement.

According to the Kansas Nurses Association, there are over 50,000 registered nurses in the state.