Faith leaders call on SEIU to let Memorial workers vote in a fair election

NewsOctober 26, 2009

Fifteen prominent religious leaders wrote a letter this week to SEIU-UHW Trustee Eliseo Medina, calling on him to stop obstructing workers’ right to an election at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital by refusing to agree to basic ground rules.

These faith leaders have stood with workers at Memorial for years as they struggled to get management to agree to negotiate a free and fair election agreement. Ironically, it is now only SEIU that is blocking negotiations.

A fair election agreement would require all parties, including SEIU, to use only truthful information during the election campaign. SEIU officials have so far waged a destructive campaign aimed not at organizing workers to improve the hospital, but at undermining hospital workers’ majority support for NUHW.

SEIU’s obstruction has left workers with no union at all for the last six months. Two weeks ago, the North Bay Labor Council called on SEIU to withdraw from the election.