Northwell core lab votes to join 1199SEIU union

Workers in Northwell Health's main lab voted 502-113 to join a union, according to the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency that protects private sector employees' right to organize.

More than 860 lab workers, including clinical lab technologists and technicians, phlebotomists and customer service representatives, were eligible to vote in the election, according to the NLRB, which tallied votes Wednesday. 

Each Northwell hospital has a small lab with employees that — in many cases — were already covered by labor agreements, said Amy Gladstein, an attorney directing a new organizing program at 1199SEIU, a health care workers' union. But Northwell has gradually centralized many of its lab operations in a "core" lab in New Hyde Park and a more specialized lab in Little Neck, she said. Hundreds of workers at the Little Neck lab voted to join 1199SEIU in December, and their counterparts in the core lab followed suit this week.

"We give our patients the best care possible — and now lab staff will have a real voice in our workplace," said Narda Skyers, a phlebotomist trained to draw and test blood. "I'm excited to begin negotiating our first contract."

Labs across the United States are dealing with a shortage of qualified workers, experts said. At Northwell, lab personnel are looking for ways to improve scheduling challenges caused by the shortage, and to tap into benefits offered through 1199SEIU, Gladstein said. 

"This is our opportunity to fight for the benefits — health care, a pension, and more — that our Northwell peers have won as 1199 members," Roland Denis, a senior clinical lab assistant, said in a statement.

Northwell Health didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Northwell, the state's largest health system, has prioritized its lab business and grown it into one of the most active in the tristate region. Its labs perform far more work for non-affiliates than the typical hospital, which might do diagnostic work for nearby nursing homes and outside physicians, said Jondavid Klipp, publisher of Laboratory Economics, a trade outlet.

"It's not an afterthought; it's a significant business of Northwell Health," Klipp said. 

The labs received more than $52 million in Medicare Part B payments in 2022, the fourth highest of any lab company in the tristate area, according to Laboratory Economics. Northwell's labs reported about $821.4 million in program revenue in 2021, the most recent year a tax filing was available for the laboratory division on the Internal Revenue Service's website.

Previous efforts to organize Northwell labs fell short, but its technicians and phlebotomists are among a growing number of labs that opted to unionize, Klipp said. 

"This is a workforce that has some leverage just because of their skill set," said Ruth Milkman, a sociology professor at the City University of New York's School of Labor, Urban Studies and its Graduate Center. 

She said it fits in with the growing interest in unions among doctors, nurses, journalists, college adjunct professors and graduate student workers. 

"They're professionals or quasi-professionals with a lot of skill, and that's where we've really seen traction building," she said.

By Sarina Trangle

sarina.trangle@newsday.comSarinaTrangle

Sarina Trangle covers affordability and cost of living issues and other business topics. She previously worked as an editor and reporter at amNewYork.