June 22nd, 2012
We voted to join NUHW at Hazel Hawkins!
It’s official! Today, the Public Employment Relations Board concluded its vote count, and 175 of us at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital in Hollister, California, are now the newest members of NUHW. We’re so glad to be out of SEIU and back in a union that fights for workers instead of making shady back room deals […]
June 22nd, 2012
Workers at Hazel Hawkins Hospital Vote to Bolt SEIU and Join NUHW
OAKLAND — Today, 175 healthcare workers at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital in Hollister, California who formerly belonged to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) became the newest members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). The Public Employment Relations Board concluded its vote count this morning with a tally of 75 for NUHW, 61 […]
June 22nd, 2012
NUHW Pharmacists Win Contract Victory at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital
Workers win 4% increases, regain pension after joining union Salinas, California — Three months after joining the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), eighteen previously non-union pharmacists at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital (SVMH) have won a contract that extends to August 2013. The pharmacists’ contract includes no takeaways and: 4% wage increases for the term of the agreement […]
June 21st, 2012
NUHW Pharmacists Win Contract Victory at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital
Workers win 4% increases, regain pension after joining union Salinas, California — Three months after joining the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), eighteen previously non-union pharmacists at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital (SVMH) have won a contract that extends to August 2013. The pharmacists’ contract includes no takeaways and: 4% wage increases for the term of […]
June 20th, 2012
California’s Health Care Wars
Counterpunch, Cal Winslow
California’s healthcare workers’ wars continue, in the streets, in collective bargaining and in the courts, at a level of conflict not often matched in the US today. More, in these California conflicts, healthcare workers and their unions are as often as not on the offensive.
The new National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) has struck the huge healthcare chain Kaiser Permanente four times now in the past year, twice with support from California Nurses Association (CNA-NNU) RNs. These two walk-outs (in September 2011 and January 2012), involving 20,000 strikers plus each, rank as the largest but one (the Verizon strike) on the table of recent strikes. At the same time, this spring, the NUHW has won first contracts – with wage increases and no concessions – at hospitals including Keck Medical Center, University of Southern California; Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco; Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital; the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital; and Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo.