The employees include licensed practical nurses, respiratory therapists, radiologists and operating room technicians, according to the report. The group is concerned that changes in the healthcare industry, such as reduced government reimbursements, will affect their jobs. “We’ve been told to do more with less…and we’re concerned that we’re going to feel the brunt of more changes,” Robert Matasich, a respiratory therapist at the hospital and member of the union’s organizing committee, said in the Olean Times Herald.
There have not been layoffs at the hospital in recent years, and a hospital spokesman said Olean General has taken steps to preserve and grow employment at the hospital, according to the report. “We believe a vast majority of those employees eligible to vote in the union election do not want the CWA at Olean General Hospital,” he told the paper.
The bargaining unit was supposed to hold a vote on unionization Oct. 10, but because the National Labor Relations Board has been affected by the government shutdown, the vote has been postponed, according to the report.
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