KU Health System Pharmacy Technicians Hold Rally to Demand Every Union Election Vote Be Counted

KU Health System has not yet agreed that all timely postmarked ballots in closely contested union elections be counted. 

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Pharmacy Technicians at The University of Kansas (KU) Health System held a rally to demand that every timely cast ballot be counted in their union election and to call attention to the fact that KU Health System has not agreed to count all ballots received after the vote tally despite being postmarked before the election deadline. 

Watch the rally here.

They waved signs and cheered as many cars beeped their horns in support, even getting an extra toot from a passing ambulance. KU nurses and other unionized staff from the Health System also showed up to support the pharmacy technicians who walked the streets demanding the votes be counted.

“I mailed my ballot on April 18, and the count wasn’t until May 14,” said KU Health System Pharmacy Technician Megan Bacon. “I was there the day of the count, and when I learned my ballot had not been received, I asked how that was possible after mailing it nearly a month earlier. No one could provide me with an answer.”

KU Pharmacy Technicians have spent more than a year and a half organizing with IAM Healthcare/The Pharmacy Guild to secure a voice on the job and advocate for safe staffing levels, patient care standards, and balanced workloads.

“In Kansas, basic fairness should still matter,” said Kansas Democratic gubernatorial candidate and State Senator Ethan Corson. “You followed the process to a tee. You did every single thing right, you dotted every single I, crossed every T, all you are asking for is that ballots that were cast before the deadline to be counted”

As public-sector employees, the technicians participated in a mail-ballot union election overseen by the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB). When the ballots were counted, the union appeared to have lost by just two votes in each of the two bargaining units. 

The PERB later informed both parties that it had received an additional 37 ballots that were postmarked before the election deadline but were not included in the vote count. The union filed challenges and submitted 31 sworn affidavits from pharmacy technicians who stated they completed and mailed their ballots before the deadline.

“No one is demanding any rules be waived, overturned, or changed,” said Missouri State Rep. Ethan Woods. “What we are demanding is that all the ballots in this union election be counted so that the choice of the workers here can be known and honored.”

Despite the discovery of the timely ballots, the KU Health System has not agreed to count all timely postmarked ballots, leaving dozens of workers uncertain whether their voices will be heard.

The IAM Healthcare Union has filed multiple Prohibited Practice Charges alleging unlawful conduct by health system management during the campaign, including allegations that a Pharmacy Technician was terminated for exercising legally protected rights to discuss unionization in the workplace. The union has also criticized the KU Health System for using taxpayer dollars to hire Littler Mendelson, a national anti-union law firm, during the campaign.

IAM Union International President Brian Bryant has sent a letter to Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly urging immediate action to ensure that all properly postmarked ballots are counted in the elections.

The KU Health System is a public academic health system with hospitals and clinics throughout Kansas and western Missouri. Pharmacy Technicians employed by the health system perform a range of professional pharmacy functions, which include providing life-saving acute care services to hospitalized patients, as well as complex work in retail, home infusion, and mail order settings. Elections covered Pharmacy Technicians at the health system’s 39th Street Main Campus and a specialty pharmacy in the Southlake Business Park in Lenexa.

The IAM Healthcare Union continues to pursue all available legal and administrative remedies and is encouraging healthcare professionals, patients, community members and supporters of fair elections to sign a petition calling for every properly postmarked ballot to be counted.

The IAM Healthcare Union is part of the 600,000-member IAM Union, one of the largest and most diverse labor organizations in North America. IAM Healthcare is the initiator of The Pharmacy Guild/IAM, the premier voice for pharmacy professionals across the United States. Learn more at PharmacyGuild.org.