36,000 Kaiser workers united

Thousands of us had high hopes and high expectations for last week’s election. We were confident it was finally our moment to escape management’s hand-picked union, SEIU-UHW, and put a stop to the cuts Kaiser is trying to force on us with the shameful complicity of SEIU officials.

The election results left us not just disappointed, but stunned. To many of us, the numbers still don’t make sense. We have questions about the vote count. We deserve answers.

NUHW’s attorney recently sent this email to the National Labor Relations Board to make sure evidence is preserved for a full investigation of those questions.

While we reflect on what happened, many of us are already asking what comes next.

Here’s what we can be sure of: NUHW-CNA members and supporters continue to stand strong against Kaiser and SEIU’s cuts, and we’re more united than ever before. More than 13,000 Kaiser Service and Tech workers cast ballots for NUHW-CNA. Combined with 18,000 Kaiser RNs in the CNA and 5,000 Kaiser NUHW members, the majority of Kaiser employees either belong to our union or voted to join us.

The unity we felt every day at our hospitals in the weeks leading up to the vote count has not gone away; it is stronger than ever. In the coming weeks, we will be showing Kaiser just how united we are in our fight for a fair contract for NUHW-CNA members.

This week, SEIU officials may be boasting about the outcome of the election, but one thing is certain: their takeover of our union and their suppression of the voices of rank-and-file dissent were a huge mistake that they’re still paying the price for. In one recent article, a labor expert referred to the trusteeship and its aftermath as “SEIU’s Iraq.”

The election was a major setback, but it has not diminished in the least our resolve to put a stop to SEIU’s downward spiral of cuts at Kaiser and throughout the healthcare industry.

Stay tuned for how you can help our movement prevail in that critical fight.

Sincerely,