SPRINGFIELD (EDITORIAL, NEWS-SUN) March 13, 2008 -- Three's a crowd when it comes to the attempt to settle a long running dispute between Springfield Regional Medical Center and a union that has waged a struggle to represent its workers.

An unusual deal to settle the question appeared to have been reached between the hospital and the Service Employees International Union to hold a non-contentious vote on unionization.

The California Nurses Union, no friend of the SEIU, had other ideas. It entered the process at the last minute bearing a monkey wrench.

The vote set here for Wednesday, March 12, was called off after the rival union sent representatives into the hospitals here to talk to workers. That poisoned the effort to skip the usual histrionics that too often mark such votes. The idea was to let local workers decide without a lot of pressure from either side.

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