FAIRBANKS -- Workers for the largest private employer in the Fairbanks North Star Borough are taking another look at joining a labor union.
Employees of Fairbanks Memorial Hospital and the Denali Center, a long-term care facility, are talking to representatives of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
A campaign to organize there failed in 1989, but the concept was rekindled by staff who contacted the IBEW last November. IBEW business representative Jay Quakenbush declined to say why some employees have recently taken issue with the hospital but said the union can help.
"We feel confident that our experience can lead those workers to what they want," Quakenbush said. ``There's a lot of things that the collective bargaining process will bring to the employees at the hospital."
Hospital officials maintain that a union would be costly to employees and would hurt progress at the nonprofit hospital.
"We feel very confident that we currently provide some of the best wages and benefits statewide," said hospital spokeswoman Shelby Nelson. "We do that so we can keep our employees long-term."
Both the hospital and the union are working to sway employees at informational meetings. The hospital and the health care home together employ about a thousand employees.
A union vote would occur at the hospital if at least 30 percent of the nurses, social workers, janitors, radiology technicians, cooks, clerks and others -- except for doctors -- fill out cards asking for a vote.
The National Labor Relations Board would conduct the election and more than half the employees must vote "yes" for the union to succeed.
A failed vote means another one cannot happen for a year.
The previous effort to organize hospital workers involved employees such as janitors, kitchen workers, switchboard operators, laboratory technicians and others. The employees voted 206 to 41 to reject the union.
Employees classified as professionals, such as accountants, registered nurses or administrators did not hold a union vote.
John Giuchici, a business representative at IBEW, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner at the time that the hospital wooed employees into voting no by improving pay and benefits.
The hospital is owned by The Greater Fairbanks Community Hospital Foundation, which hires the Arizona-based company Banner Health System to run the operation. According to the company's Web site, Banner is one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country with 20 hospitals and six long-term care centers.
The IBEW represents about 4,500 workers statewide, including administrative staff for the city of Fairbanks and municipal workers elsewhere.
