1,776 Des Moines nurses voting on union in largest private-sector election ever

After a delayed vote because of the government shutdown, hundreds of nurses at four UnityPoint Health hospitals in the Des Moines area are voting this weekend on whether to unionize with Teamsters Local 90—an election being closely watched by non-union nurses across Iowa who are also struggling with understaffing and patient violence.

The postponed UnityPoint vote among 1,776 health care professionals at Blank Children’s Hospital, Iowa Lutheran Hospital, Iowa Methodist Medical Center, and Methodist West Hospital has been rescheduled for Sunday, Dec. 7, through Tuesday, Dec. 9.

It’s the state’s largest private-sector union election ever, according to Teamsters.

“I’m excited. I’m ready to vote,” said Belinda Carpenter, a registered nurse in the critical care and emergency departments who works at the three adult hospitals. “I think that nurses are seeing the bad side of what UnityPoint’s doing.”

Belinda Carpenter, left, and Whitney Armstrong, right, appear in a screenshot from a video call with Iowa Starting Line’s Amie Rivers. Both are registered nurses at UnityPoint hospitals in the Des Moines area and helped organize 1,776 nurses across four hospitals. (Amie Rivers/Iowa Starting Line)

That “bad side,” according to nurses who spoke with me, is relentless cost-cutting at the expense of workers and patients: Nurses have seen their pay shift differential cut, meaning they’re working more hours for less money. Longtime nurses get burned out, leave, and aren’t replaced—meaning patient wait times go up, increasing frustration and angry outbursts.

Carpenter recalled a time a colleague was assaulted by a patient and broke their back. UnityPoint, she said, disciplined them when they were unable to return to work because of the pain.

“That type of stuff is the stuff that’s super disappointing, because I thought better of this company,” she said.

Even patient equipment has become substandard, said Dawn Balek, an overnight recovery room nurse at Iowa Methodist Medical Center with nearly 18 years of nursing experience.

“They don’t ask us which would work better; all of a sudden, we get new IV bags,” Balek told me. “We go to the cheapest tubing, and it falls out … We’re constantly telling them there’s a problem; they don’t care, ’cause they’re saving money.”

Dawn Balek, an overnight recovery room nurse at Iowa Methodist Medical Center. (Courtesy of Dawn Balek)

UnityPoint has opposed the unionization effort from the beginning. Workers say the company has paid anti-union consultants up to $6 million over the past year to fight it—including creating a video series that features two of the company’s chief nursing officers encouraging workers to vote no.

“At UnityPoint Health, we believe that direct collaboration is the foundation for building the strongest and most supportive environment for both our team members and the patients we serve,” the company said in a statement, adding a union was “not in the best interests of our patients, our nurses or our community.”

Whitney Armstrong, a critical care nurse at Iowa Methodist Medical Center, scoffed at the “direct collaboration.”

“We don’t have a say in anything as it is,” she said.

The mere threat of a union, nurses said, has prompted welcome changes. Carpenter noted that metal detectors have been added to emergency rooms. Balek said nurses from different floors are talking more with one another about their issues.

Armstrong believes the union’s demands—if they win, and then get safe staffing added to a contract—will actually help the company’s bottom line.

“Safe staffing actually saves money for the hospital,” she said. “The length of stay gets decreased because patients are able to get better faster. And it’s better for nurses—it decreases burnout, it makes us want to stay in our job, it means people don’t leave the bedside. So all of these things create such a net positive for the community.”

Are you working in health care? What concerns do you have about your working conditions? Email me.

@iowastartinglineUnityPoint nurses are participating in Iowa’s largest private sector union vote in history this weekend. Subscribe to Clocked In: Iowa At Work at the link in our bio.

♬ original sound – Iowa Starting Line