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Kaiser workers vote to join NUHW, reject SEIU in three elections

New member-led union caps first year with biggest victories yet; votes called a “referendum” against SEIU’s power grabs and secret deals with employers 

LOS ANGELES—Nearly one year to the day after SEIU seized control of California’s healthcare union in a hostile takeover, nurses and healthcare professionals at nearly 100 Kaiser hospitals and clinics have voted to take back their union by joining the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).

“Today we’ve restored democracy and integrity in our union,” said Irma Dufelmeier, a registered nurse at Kaiser’s Los Angeles Medical Center. “At Kaiser, we’ve won the highest standards in the country for healthcare workers and our patients. Now we have a member-led union where we can protect those standards. These elections are a referendum on SEIU’s backroom deals with healthcare corporations that give away workers’ and patients’ rights.”

The National Labor Relations Board counted ballots today for 2,300 workers in three bargaining units. Workers’ victory was overwhelming, with 1,652 voting to join NUHW and just 254 for SEIU. Registered nurses at Kaiser’s Los Angeles Medical Center voted 746 to 36 for NUHW; psychiatric social workers voted 717 to 192; and other healthcare professionals voted 189 to 29.

Beyond Chron: NUHW, SEIU in Kaiser Election Showdown

Almost one year to the date that SEIU placed its large UHW local in trusteeship (leading former UHW leaders to form NUHW), ballots will be counted at Kaiser Hospital in Los Angeles on Tuesday in a “game changer” for the winning union. The stakes are high. NUHW’s victory would give it strong momentum for winning 50,000 more Kaiser workers in June, while a defeat would be a major blow. SEIU faces equally stark outcomes: either win here, or preside over the likely inevitable march of all Kaiser workers out of their union – with other hospital workers to follow.

A clear majority of workers submitted decertification petitions and have shown little inclination to stay with SEIU. Many pro-NUHW workers predict victory, which is why SEIU fought to stop the election, and still seeks an NLRB ruling impounding the ballots prior to counting. SEIU faces the same problem here as in Santa Rosa: workers view the election as between “top-down” vs. “rank and file” decision-making, with NUHW clearly benefiting from the populist ardor sweeping the nation.

Los Angeles Times: Healthcare unions await Los Angeles workers’ vote results

Election on which union will represent workers at Kaiser Permanente’s L.A. Medical Center is a key battle in the clash between giant SEIU and upstart NUHW. Results are to be counted Tuesday

By Patrick J. McDonnell

It has taken almost a year, but Tessie Costales says she and her fellow nurses are thrilled that they were finally able to vote for a new collective bargaining representative.

“We want a democratic union where there is member involvement in determining what is safe and good for our patients, and what is safe and good for our members,” said Costales, a registered nurse at Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center.

The votes of Costales and hundreds of other nurses at the Kaiser facility are scheduled to be counted this week — the latest development in a monumental intra-union struggle for the hearts and minds of California healthcare workers.

Baltimore Sun: UM professor reprimanded for apparent conflict of interest

He wrote legal opinion on university letterhead, did not disclose fees from union

A professor at the University of Maryland, College Park is facing conflict-of-interest questions after he used university letterhead to deliver a legal opinion in his role as a consultant to a labor union.

Fred Feinstein, an adjunct professor at the School of Public Policy, wrote a letter saying that California health care employees could jeopardize their contract benefits if they left Service Employees International for a competing union. Feinstein received $240,000 in consulting fees from SEIU in 2007 and 2008, which he did not mention in the Jan. 12 letter that was distributed as a flier in the continuing union battle.

Press Democrat: Charges fly over union vote at Memorial Hospital

Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and the National Union of Healthcare Workers have resolved the question of 17 ballots challenged after a union election last December — but that’s about the only thing they agree on.

Both sides recently signed off on a finding by the National Labor Relations Board that only four of the 17 challenged ballots are valid. But they have very different conclusions about what that means.

“We won our election,” said Melissa Bosanco, a care partner at Memorial Hospital and a NUHW supporter.