By DEVONA WALKER
devona.walker at heraldtribune.com
For years, unions have hypothesized about the Sunshine State's "organizing potential."
With its transplants from the Midwest, Northeast and other union-friendly regions, historically lower wages and low unemployment rates, unions have long seen Florida as ripe for large-scale organizing.
Within the last several months, what had only been speculation has been traded in for some unprecedented activity.
Nearly 4,000 nurses, technicians, professionals and other workers at six Florida hospitals have voted to form a union with the Service Employees International Union since October.
That includes more than 500 nurses at Blake Medical Center in Bradenton.
Roughly 500 Cuban and Haitian janitors at two South Florida universities -- Nova Southeastern and Florida International -- were organized in November.
Over the summer, several hundred more janitors at the University of Miami voted to join a union.
"Previously, national unions pretty much had written off Florida, thinking it was unwinnable," said Bruce Nissen, director of research at the Center for Labor Research and Studies at Florida International University in Miami.
"But now, Florida and a few other places are being used as a testing ground -- to see if organizing can be done in the South."
[ . . . ]
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20070115&Category=BUSINESS&ArtNo=701150587&SectionCat=COLUMNIST86&Template=printartArticle published Jan 15, 2007