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Green 960 Labor Report: Kaiser workers vote to join NUHW

The battle rages on between the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West and the NUHW, the National Union of Healthcare Workers. Ballots were counted on Tuesday for 2,300 workers in three bargaining units. And… the vote was to walk away from SEIU and join a union that was formed in January of 2009. I spoke with […]

Workers’ Independent News: Kaiser Workers At Three California Facilities Choose NUHW Over SEIU

In southern California the National Union of Health Care Workers won elections against the SEIU at Kaiser bargaining units. At Kaiser’s Los Angeles Medical Center, the vote among RN’s was 746 for NUHW and 36 for SEIU. Leila Valdivia – a nurse at the medical center active in the union since 1990 – says a lack of rank and file democracy in the SEIU is why she voted for NUHW.

[Leila Valdivia]: “Over the years it became evident that the direction of the SEIU was completely turning their back on democracy of any kind. In fact, it was very difficult over the years to watch our representation and voice just get dwindled away.”

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser workers vote to leave SEIU

The membership rolls of the nation’s largest healthcare union are getting a little smaller after several thousand hospital and clinic workers employed by Kaiser Permanente voted to leave the Service Employees International Union and join an upstart rival.

Sacramento Business Journal: Southern California Kaiser workers vote to leave SEIU

Kaiser Permanente workers in Southern California have voted by huge margins to dump Service Employees International Union and go with a rival union formed a year ago by former SEIU officials.

The vote was 1,652 to 254 in the biggest contest for members since the National Union of Healthcare Workers was formed. It brings 2,300 workers in three bargaining units at Kaiser hospitals and clinics in Los Angeles and San Diego into the new union.

Labor Notes: NUHW Takes Kaiser Elections

The National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) chalked up an important win Tuesday in Southern California as hundreds of professional and technical workers at the giant health care chain Kaiser Permanente voted to leave the Service Employees (SEIU) and join the upstart NUHW.

“We were confident we would win,” said Tessie Costales, a 27-year nurse at Kaiser Sunset medical complex in Los Angeles. “Today it’s official.”

A last-minute push by the Service Employees (SEIU) to impound the ballots and prevent the vote count was denied by the National Labor Relations Board.