COAL TOWNSHIP - Employees at Shamokin Area Community Hospital (SACH) voted Wednesday to dissolve their membership in the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU).
The move to decertify the union came the same day it was publicly announced that final approval of the full merger and integration of SACH into Geisinger Medical Center in Danville had been granted by the Pennsylvania Attorney General and Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Employees voted 33-8 to decertify the union, according to SACH President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Harlow. OPEIU represented 74 registered nurses and medical technicians at SACH.
If there are no objections filed over the decertification, the National Labor Relations Board will certify the decision in about a week.
Geisinger, which will officially merge with SACH in January 2012 to form the new Geisinger-Shamokin Area Community Hospital, doesn't have unions, and officials previously said Geisinger would not recognize OPEIU and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Union at SACH.
Those two unions represent 246 hospital employees in support maintenance, housekeeping, support services, registered nurses and medical technologists.
AFSCME will continue to represent SACH employees until the merger is complete. No vote on decertifying that union has been taken.
Once they become Geisinger employees, SACH workers will retain their same base pay rates or better, Geisinger officials said in November when news of the merger was first reported. Geisinger also will recognize employees' years of service and SACH employees will have the opportunity to work at the Danville campus once the merger is complete.