Labor effort aimed at Boston health workers

Union canvassers in Boston are pursuing two urgent missions: organizing the city's big teaching hospitals and trying to rally support for federal legislation that could enhance the strength of unions nationwide. The two goals are intertwined, because passage of the bill before Congress would make success more likely for the Service Employees International Union's Massachusetts chapter, which is two years into the hospital organizing effort that is focusing first on Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.