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SF Business Times: Workers at Doctors hospital vote to join new union, dump SEIU

Staffers at Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo voted to join the new National Union of Healthcare Workers and dump the Service Employees International Union as their bargaining representative.

Overwhelming victory in first election

Doctors San Pablo workers at the PERB ballot count celebrate their victory.(Left to right: Roger Allan, EVS Lead; Ferdinand Comayas, Ultrasonographer; Jay Hoey, Lead Nuclear Medicine Tech; Dena Hulse, Respiratory Care Practitioner) NUHW: 158 votes — more than 83 percentSEIU: 24 votesNo Union: 7 votes Nearly 300 caregivers at Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo […]

Healthcare workers join NUHW in first election

Caregivers at Doctors Medical Center overwhelmingly reject SEIU in first election since almost 100,000 petitioned to join the National Union of Healthcare workers

San Pablo, Calif.—In an overwhelming victory for California healthcare workers’ movement to take back their union, nearly 300 caregivers at Doctors Medical Center won an election to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) and reject the SEIU. Workers mailed secret ballots to California’s Public Employment Relations Board, which certified today that more than 83 percent chose NUHW. The count was 158 for NUHW, 24 for SEIU, and 7 for No Union.

“We’re so excited to be in control of our own union again,” said Duka Ristic, an ultrasonographer at the hospital for eight years. “NUHW is led by the local healthcare workers and leaders we know and trust, who helped us raise standards for our patients and keep our community’s hospital open.”

Central Valley Indymedia: Fresno is ground zero in labor struggle

by Mike Rhodes, Editor, Community Alliance Newspaper

Fresno is ground zero of an epic battle for the heart and soul of the union movement. Will 10,000+ Fresno homecare workers be represented by a union run by unelected, out-of-town bureaucrats who negotiate sweetheart deals behind closed doors with corporate CEOs? OR, will workers support the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) who is a member-driven organization that fights for better pay and benefits for their members?

Local healthcare union activists charge that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is run by unelected, out-of-town bureaucrats who negotiate sweetheart deals behind closed doors with corporate CEOs. Organizers and members of the National Union for Healthcare Workers (NUHW) believe labor unions should be militant, member-driven organizations that fight for better pay and benefits for their members. They are in a David & Goliath–like struggle with SEIU (aka Goliath), which has everything money can buy, but NUHW (aka David) has a secret weapon—the support of the workers.

Counterpunch: Fresno, the New Ground Zero

Ground zero in the California war between the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the new National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) is now an election in the sprawling Central Valley city of Fresno, where in June 10,000 home healthcare workers will choose which union will represent them.

The election comes as the result of petitions signed in two weeks in February by 2500 Fresno County home workers – far more than the 1500 signatures required. These were delivered by NUHW supporters to the County on March 1 in accord with the requirements of the Public Employees Relations Act.