Nurses at a second Ascension Via Christi hospital in Wichita vote to join national union

Nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph Hospital in Wichita voted Wednesday to unionize, making them the second Ascension hospital in Wichita to do so in about four months.

Registered nurses voted 179 to 108 (about 62 percent) in favor of joining the National Nurses Organizing Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United. The hospital has more than 350 registered nurses. The vote was to “strengthen their capacity to advocate for much-needed change at the hospital and improve the recruitment and retention” of registered nurses, a National Nurses United news release says.

“This vote is a victory for our patients and the entire Wichita community,” St. Joseph registered nurse Marvin Ruckle said in the release. “As nurses, we want to provide our patients with optimal care, and union membership will support us as we fight for the resources we need to do that, including a contract that ensures safer staffing, workplace violence prevention, and local nurse retention.”

In a statement, Ascension said they are “disappointed our registered nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph voted for union representation.”

“We strongly believe we can be most effective working collaboratively without union representation,” the statement said. “We respect the voting process and are committed to ensuring it is followed during the vote certification period.”

The unionizing comes amid a nationwide shortage of registered nurses as many left the industry in the wake of the pandemic and the strain put on the healthcare system by the virus.

In December, a New York Times investigation into Ascension — called “Profits Over Patients: How a Sprawling Hospital Chain Ignited Its Own Staffing Crisis” — reported that the healthcare system, one of the largest in the country, had been cutting staffing levels for years in order to increase profits.

In November, registered nurses at St. Francis in Wichita voted 378 to 194 (about 66 percent) in favor of joining the union that nurses at St. Joseph have now joined. National Nurses United is the largest registered nurses’ union in the country, the news release says.

St. Francis is the only Ascension facility in Kansas that is unionized. St. Joseph will be after the National Labor Relations Board certifies the vote.

Ascension is a nonprofit Catholic organization. Ascension was the second-largest health system in 2019 with 151 hospitals — today, there are 145 hospitals. Ascension has roughly 139,000 employees at facilities in 19 states. In Kansas, Ascension operates seven hospitals with 75 other locations and nearly 6,400 employees.