A nurses' union declared victory again late Tuesday after an arbitrator upheld the state's first successful election to establish a nursing union.

The Texas affiliate of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association voted March 27 to organize nurses at Tenet Healthcare Corp.'s Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center in Houston.

Tenet said the vote – which came in at 119-111 in favor of organizing – should be held again because union representatives created an "atmosphere of intimidation."

But arbitrator Diane Dunham Massey sided with the union, and her decision is final and binding.

The Houston vote is important to the Dallas area because it could foretell how similar union votes might end here. Under Tenet's agreement with the unions, nurses at the company's Dallas-based hospitals cannot vote to form a union until 2010.

"We still believe that our employees are better off without third-party representation, but that choice is – and has always been – theirs to make," Tenet spokesman David Matthews said in a statement.