Two of the nation's fastest-growing labor unions—the Service Employees International Union and the California Nurses Association—have ended a bitter dispute by agreeing to work together to unionize hospital workers and push for universal health coverage. Andrew Stern, the service employees' president, said that at a moment when there is an unusual opportunity to push for a better healthcare system and a law that would make it easier to unionize workers, "we believe that our unions, together, can do far more in terms of accomplishing these goals than either of us can do on our own."