Workers at Stanford and Lucile Packard Children's hospitals have voted to be represented by the United Healthcare Workers (UHW) in an election held Wednesday and Thursday.

The election was overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which will certify the results in seven days to allow for any official challenge.

The hospitals announced Thursday afternoon that the election was 858 to 277 in favor of UHW representation. The union will represent 1,450 housekeepers, food service workers and other employees at the two hospitals.

The employees had been represented by Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 715, which was reorganized for health care workers into SEIU-UHW.

The hospitals withdrew recognition of SEIU in late July because the employees had not voted on the change, according to the hospitals, triggering the election overseen by NLRB.

Linda Cornell, an assistant shop steward at Stanford Hospital, said other hospitals in state accepted the union reorganization from SEIU to SEIU-UHW but Stanford and Packard hospitals withdrew recognition of the union.

-- Don Kazak