2,000 Des Moines area UnityPoint nurses to vote on unionization this month
About 2,000 nurses in four Des Moines area UnityPoint Health campuses will vote early this month on whether to unionize their ranks for what leaders of the movement say will bring more bargaining power for salaries, benefits and working conditions through a proposed affiliation with the Teamsters Union.
Nurses are expected to vote Dec. 7 to 9 on unionization at four UnityPoint locations — Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Blank Children’s Hospital, Methodist West Hospital and Iowa Lutheran Hospital.
An affirmative vote would be a groundbreaking one in Iowa health care — and the union movement — as the Teamsters would represent nurses in non-profit hospitals, with the potential for organizing other health-care workers across a span of UnityPoint facilities in Iowa — and other medical centers in which health-care workers could be inspired by the Des Moines vote.
“We are fed up with UnityPoint whittling away at the things nurses need at the bedside,” said Alex Wilken, 39, a critical care nurse at Iowa Methodist Medical Center with more than a decade of experience.
Wilken is on the organizing committee for unionization with his nursing peers at the four centers.
“It isn’t just about pay,” Wilken said, adding that patient-staff ratios and safer working conditions are a big part of the push for what he believes will be more effective advocacy.
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2025/12/02/2000-des-moines-area-unitypoint-nurses-to-vote-on-unionization-this-month/?ref=paydayreport.com