KINGSTON – The National Labor Relations Board has given nurses the go ahead to start organizing a unit of the New York State Nurses Association at Benedictine Hospital in Kingston.

The nurses voted in September, but the hospital sought to block the vote count. The NLRB days ago approved the counting of the ballots and the registered nurses voted to join the union.

Nurses Association spokesman Mark Genovese said the local nurses will now begin to form their bargaining unit.

“This usually takes a couple of months by the time they get all of this together, so we would anticipate probably some time early next year that they might actually request to begin negotiations,” he said.

Benedictine, which is in the process of merging with Kingston Hospital, had opposed the nurses organizing, say RNs from both hospitals should be involved.