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Latest stunt at labor board shows SEIU’s charges have no merit

Troubled union still struggling to stop fair elections for thousands of their own members to switch to NUHW

LOS ANGELES—After a year of stalling union elections for more than 100,000 of their own members to quit SEIU, SEIU officials have cast themselves as champions of democracy in a cynical move to manipulate the election schedule in their favor. Since last February, SEIU has blocked or delayed elections at more than 360 healthcare facilities in California where caregivers are organizing to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).

“In election after election, healthcare workers have chosen NUHW,” said Kathleen Volle, a respiratory therapist at St. Louise Regional Hospital in Santa Clara County. “SEIU knows their days are numbered and they’re trying to grab anything they can on their way out.”

SEIU’s latest move comes just a week after 70 percent of nurses at Kaiser Permanente’s flagship Los Angeles hospital pledged their votes to NUHW in a government-supervised election—and just one month since workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital chose NUHW 283-to-13 in what the Los Angeles Times called “a crushing defeat for the SEIU.”

Beyond Chron: New Documents Explain SEIU’s Wrong Turn

Newly discovered documents reveal that SEIU carried out its intended strategy in attacking UNITE HERE, but that its plan was flawed from the start. From wrongly believing that the entire labor movement could be turned against UNITE HERE (the opposite occurred), to thinking that a “field” campaign of robo calls and mailers to UNITE HERE members would turn them against their own union (the strategy backfired), SEIU’s newly revealed seven point plan exposes a union once known for its savvy “Justice for Janitors” campaigns but whose leadership has taken a wrong turn.

Instead of researching facts, soliciting broad input, and carefully deliberating over a decision that could weaken SEIU nationally and in its California battle against rival NUHW, a handful of SEIU leaders moved quickly to mount an aggressive campaign against UNITE HERE that never had a chance of success. SEIU now faces an estimated 100 elections involving 20,000 workers against rival NUHW in the first five months of 2010, and a June contest for 45,000 workers at Kaiser Hospitals. SEIU’s misguided war on UNITE HERE, and its ongoing strategic deficiencies, could soon cost it dearly.

Suzanne Gordon: Why Kaiser RNs should back NUHW (Beyond Chron)

(Ed note: A two day election starts today at Kaiser Sunset Hospital in Los Angeles, where nurses will be deciding whether to leave SEIU and join NUHW. Suzanne Gordon has written or edited eight books about nursing and health care, and recently published a study of the Kaiser labor-management partnership called Healing Together)

RNs today face mounting difficulties. Hospital budget-cutting is once again eliminating the jobs of nurses and increasing their workloads — a trend that may only get worse due to the troubled state of our local economy and “health care reform” in Washington that may fall short of our hopes and needs.

Even at a health care employer as heavily unionized and profitable as Kaiser, we see the danger signs: cost-cutting that could lead to under-staffing and erosion of quality patient care. At such a critical moment, nurses need an organization that can advocate effectively for their own interests and those of their patients.

AUDIO: Voting underway for 2,300 Kaiser professionals to quit SEIU and join NUHW

Election includes 900 registered nurses at Kaiser’s largest L.A.-area hospital and 1,400 professionals across Southern California

Local audio clips and photos:

San Diego: Jim Clifford, Therapist, Kaiser San Diego
[Photo | MP3]

Los Angeles: Tessie Costales, Registered Nurse at Kaiser Sunset/LAMC
[Photo | MP3]

Inland Empire: Marty Needleman, Psychiatric Social Worker, Kaiser Fontana
[Photo | MP3]

Bakersfield: Stacy Eldridge, Registered Dietitian, Kaiser Bakersfield
[Photo | MP3]

Southern California—Healthcare professionals at nearly one hundred Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics are voting today to switch unions. They say their old union, the Service Employees union or S-E-I-U, has shut them out of negotiations with employers—and cut deals that hurt healthcare workers and their patients.

The 2,300 workers include registered nurses, therapists, dietitians, and psychiatric social workers across Southern California. They’re part of an exodus of more than 100,000 S-E-I-U members who are organizing to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers, or N-U-H-W.

Press Democrat: Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital challenges union election

Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital has asked the National Labor Relations Board to nullify the union election held at the hospital two weeks ago.

In a formal objection, the hospital claims the National Union of Healthcare Workers engaged in coercion and intimidation that prevented “the free expression of the employees choice.”

The NUHW dismissed the move, calling it an effort to discredit an election the hospital knows it lost.