Nurses at Concord Hospital locations in Franklin and Laconia voted to unionize Sept. 4, becoming the first at private hospitals in New Hampshire to do so.
The vote is a culmination of months of organizing by nurses, fueled by concerns about chronic staffing shortages, burnout and corresponding worries about nurse and patient safety as a result. Twenty-four nurses in Franklin and 150 in Laconia would be represented as part of the union of state employees.
“The nurses at Concord Hospital – Laconia and Franklin have spoken loud and clear: they want a seat at the table,” Rich Gulla, president of SEA/SEIU Local 1984, said in a statement. “They stood together for their patients, their community, and for each other — and today, they won.”
Concord Hospital said it respects its employees and their decisions.
“While we continue to believe that the collaborative working relationship we shared prior to the election offered the best path forward, we are prepared to move ahead in good faith,” Veronica Rosa, the hospital system’s chief advancement officer, said in a statement. “We respect our nurses’ decision and are committed to navigating the next steps together.”
Nurses have been wary of speaking publicly about their concerns.
Conversations about unionizing have occurred among nurses at Concord Hospital in Concord, but they have not mobilized alongside their peers in the Lakes Region cities. Concord Hospital acquired its Franklin and Laconia locations in 2021 after buying LRGHealthcare out of bankruptcy.
The National Labor Relations Board, which oversaw the vote, must certify it before nurses can move forward with forming a chapter with the SEA/SEIU, and a seven-day window exists for objections to be filed. Election results won’t stand, the NLRB website states, “if conduct by the employer or the union created an atmosphere of confusion or fear of reprisals and thus interfered with the employees’ freedom of choice.”
Unionization among health care professionals grew in popularity before the COVID-19 pandemic, but has been gaining momentum nationwide in the years since.
Nurse unionization efforts at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center failed last year after organizers said support chilled amid millions of spending on anti-union consultants by the hospital, according to reporting in the Valley News and The Dartmouth.
A wave of unionization among doctors, alongside other hospital staff, has also hit Massachusetts, including a vote this summer to unionize among physicians at Mass General Brigham. The longstanding Massachusetts Nurses Association has members across that state.
The vote is a culmination of months of organizing by nurses, fueled by concerns about chronic staffing shortages, burnout and corresponding worries about nurse and patient safety as a result.
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