An effort is underway by Service Employees International Union Local 49 to unionize Asante employees.

The Service Employees International Union Local 49 is trying to unionize employees at Asante health system.

Representatives of the labor union have been gathering signatures at the Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center on East Barnett Road for several months, according to Robert Begg, Asante’s vice president of human resources.

According to Asante, the union has focused on employees who belong to what the National Labor Relations Board classifies as the “nonprofessional” bargaining unit. These are often service employees, including food service workers, housekeepers and certified nursing assistants.

SEIU has been trying to get Asante employees to sign letters of support for the union, Begg said. With enough signatures, the union can petition the NLRB to become the union of choice for that bargaining unit.

“It’s a very common activity that happens when unions are trying to gain support of an employer,” Begg said.

Employees, he said, have the right to gather and talk about these things as long the activities don’t interfere with their work.

Asante nurses at Rogue Regional Medical Center are unionized under the Oregon Nurses Association. “We have a good relationship with the ONA,” he said.

Begg said he was not privy to SEIU’s level of support among Asante workers.

Representatives at SEIU would not comment on its activities at Asante or indicate how many signatures the union had gathered.

Alan Dubinsky, communications director at SEIU Local 49, said in an interview, “Frontline health care workers at many hospitals across Oregon are rising up to demand better in their workplaces right now.”

Begg said that, “As an employer, we try very hard to make sure that our employees are satisfied with their compensation and their benefits and their work schedules and all that kind of stuff to engage them in their work,” he said.

“And so I think we’re a good employer from that perspective, and we treat people well,” he continued, “so I feel confident that our employees are going to do the right thing for themselves. And they get to make a decision on whether they want to be unionized or not. That’s just part of our rights as Americans.”