In recent weeks employees of the American Red Cross have been campaigning and negotiating for what they believe is their right as Americans--to join a labor union.

Yesterday, they overcame one obstacle on their path when Red Cross management agreed to allow North Boston Employees to vote on unionizing.

Employees of the Red Cross' North Boston Biomedical Service branch, which administers blood drives in the Boston area, have been negotiating with management since Feb. 3 to organize into a union.

They originally planned to appear at a hearing to "defend our right to organize," announced to flyer posted earlier this week in the Yard. This hearing, originally scheduled for today, was canceled because of last-minute cooperation with Red Cross management.

Had the two sides not come to an agreement on a timetable for an employee vote, the employees had planned to stop work and attend the hearing, the flyer said.

Marybeth G. Anderson, a Red Cross executive involved with this week's Memorial Hall blood drive, said the drive would continue as planned since the hearing was canceled.

"I don't believe this is true," she said, referring to the flyer which announced the employees' plan to leave work today during the hearing. "They will be here today and tomorrow."

According to Pat A. Hurley, a spokesperson for the Red Cross, management has agreed to consider the vote of the employees at an election scheduled for March 12.

"This vote is to determine whether a majority of these workers decide they want to organize," Hurley said. If they do, "we cannot interfere with it...by rules of labor relations we are required to allow it. We always follow the law."

Not all employees working for the Red Cross are automatically organized into unions. The complex rules dividing the local chapters result in some areas organizing and other not.

When asked for the percentage of employees that are currently members of a union, Hurley declined, unable to cite exact statistics. Hurley said certain Red Cross employees are unionized, while the technicians and the practical nurses, who are the ones who actually draw the blood, are not.

"[F]or example, the registered nurses in Massachusetts are unionized, while the technicians and the practical nurses, who are the ones who actually draw the blood, are not," she said. In Vermont and New Hampshire "the registered nurses are also not [members of a union]," while "the men who drive the trucks, are [members of the] Teamsters [union]."

Normally, employees seeking to unionize will initially submit a petition to their employer. Hurley said the Red Cross employees submitted their petitions on Feb. 3.

The next step in the unionization process is a hearing by the National Labor Relations Board, a government organization which mediates relations between employees and management.

"If there is a 30 percent consensus, then they are heard buy the National Relations Board," Hurley said.

After that, Hurley said employees normally hold a vote to determine if a majority want to join the union.

Red Cross Director of Human Resources Sharon Degroot was not available for comment yesterday afternoon. She was involved in a "negotiations meeting to hear both sides and to address the issue," Hurley said.

Ellen Norton, a spokesperson for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), was also unavailable for comment.

SEIU is the organization handling the petition on behalf of the Red Cross employees. It is under the auspices of the National AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization representing over 400,000 American workers.