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OAKLAND — Assemblywoman Dion Aroner today accused Children's Hospital in Oakland of creating a threatening workplace for some 150 hospital technicians who on Wednesday, will vote on whether or not to unionize. 

Aroner, D-Berkeley/Richmond, appeared outside of the hospital with several members of the staff who say they have been threatened by management in their attempts to organize under the Health Care Workers Union Service Employees International Union, Local 250. 

They say that their campaigns to promote unionization have led to threatening e-mails and anti-union literature from hospital management. They also say that their actions have been heavily monitored by the hospital, and that security guards have been used to intimidate them in their activities. 

Lorraine Donahue, who has been a respiratory therapist at the hospital for 21 years, said that she was taking pictures to put together a pamphlet urging workers to vote for unionization. Her actions, which she says were conducted during her free time, sparked an e-mail from the hospital threatening “disciplinary action.”