Author Archive

In These Times: California union rebels demand biggest labor board vote in seven decades

By Steve Early

At the Bay Area NUHW press briefing, hosted by UNITE HERE Local 2, Kaiser workers explained why they want out of their existing union. Since January of 2009, when former SEIU president Andy Stern (now a drug company board member) put 150,000-member United Healthcare Workers (UHW) under trusteeship for challenging his heavy-handed rule, things have not gone well for care-givers in California.

Kaiser social workers Randi Shaw and David Shapiro were part of a pre-trusteeship UHW chapter that had 350 widely-dispersed members, but a strong network of 35 elected shop stewards. The social workers felt connected to Kaiser contract negotiations in 2000 and 2005 that Shapiro participated in as a bargaining committee member.

“As social workers, we believe in democracy, in electing our stewards,” Shaw said. “When SEIU took over our local, they said nothing would change. But one of the first things they did was remove stewards and other elected leaders.” Day-to-day representation has suffered as result, Shaw and Shapiro reported. Only members willing to sign an official SEIU loyalty oath are eligible to serve as stewards or negotiators.

So Kaiser management is taking advantage of the weaker, less experienced people who’ve replaced the hundreds of Kaiser stewards who have quit or been purged by SEIU because of their NUHW sympathies. “It’s very different working at Kaiser now, “Shaw said. “The culture has changed and you can feel it.”

KPFA Radio: 45,000 Kaiser healthcare workers file for election

KPFA radio interviews Kaiser San Francisco caregiver George Wong as 45,000 Kaiser workers file petition for an election to join NUHW. The election will be the largest-ever private sector union in California history. 

Kaiser workers launch biggest labor battle since 1940s

California labor leaders support petition for 45,000 caregivers to quit SEIU and join NUHW

LOS ANGELES—Thousands of Kaiser healthcare workers fired the first shot today in a long-anticipated battle for independence that will determine the future of California’s largest union, SEIU. They filed a petition that will trigger elections for 45,000 SEIU members to choose between the troubled incumbent and the state’s fastest-growing union, the new National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).

“We worked for decades to make Kaiser jobs good, stable jobs that paid enough so people in our communities could support their families,” said Robert Hernandez, a materials management clerk at Kaiser Baldwin Park for almost 20 years. “Now since SEIU officials took over our union last year, Kaiser has announced layoffs, cut benefits, and started turning good jobs into contingent or flexed positions. We’re ready to put healthcare workers back in charge of our union again.”

45,000 Kaiser workers win the right to vote!

United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta stands with Kaiser workers filing their petition to join NUHW.Kaiser workers filed a petition today that will trigger elections for 45,000 SEIU members to choose between the troubled incumbent and the state’s fastest-growing union, NUHW. “We worked for decades to make Kaiser jobs good, stable jobs that paid enough […]

KPFA: Labor board rejects SEIU charges and prepares to schedule elections for thousands to join NUHW

KPFA interviews Alta Bates Summit Medical Center worker Beverly Griffith about the coming elections for tens of thousands of California healthcare workers to join NUHW.