June 2nd, 2010
Beyond Chron: NUHW Defeats SEIU, Management 393-122 in USC Hospital Election
By Randy Shaw
NUHW has overcome a concerted “no-union” campaign from SEIU and hospital management to win bargaining rights for over 600 USC University Hospital workers. NUHW’s 393-122 victory over “no union” followed SEIU’s removal of its name from the ballot last week, claiming that it could not overcome management intimidation of its own members. SEIU had previously spent months in an aggressive anti-NUHW campaign that many believed was designed to bolster management’s own anti-union efforts. NUHW’s victory is sweet vindication for NUHW worker leaders and organizers arrested and disciplined by management in recent weeks, and should have workers asking whether they want a union that runs from management intimidation or stays and fights.
May 29th, 2010
Video: More than 600 caregivers join NUHW at USC University Hospital
More than 600 USC University Hospital workers joined the National Union of Healthcare Workers in a two-day election that capped a months-long battle between caregivers, hospital management, and the SEIU. Beyond Chron, May 28, 2010: NUHW’s 393-122 victory over “no union” followed SEIU’s removal of its name from the ballot last week, claiming that it […]
May 28th, 2010
Healthcare workers win new union at USC University Hospital
Caregivers join NUHW despite union-busting effort by hospital administrators and officials of their own former union, SEIU
LOS ANGELES—More than 600 USC University Hospital workers have joined the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) in a two-day election that capped a months-long battle between caregivers, hospital management, and the SEIU.
“We’ve taken back our hospital,” said Noemi Aguirre, a respiratory therapist at the hospital. “It’s such an incredible feeling to know we have a voice again, that we have the strength we need to stand up for our patients and for ourselves.”
May 24th, 2010
FightBackNews: Interview with Sal Rosselli, leader of National Union of Healthcare Workers
Fight Back!: We’re here with Sal Rosselli, Interim President of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). Could you tell us what’s at the heart of the dispute between NUHW and SEIU, the Service Employees International Union?
Sal Rosselli: There is a fundamental difference in ideology. The way we describe it is it’s a bottom-up perspective versus a top-down perspective. We believe in empowering workers and that there is no limit to empowering them. This differs from SEIU’s leadership who are increasingly concentrating power, their authority and resources among a few in Washington D.C. The labor movement is at a crossroads. The choice is between a union movement of workers, for workers and by workers, grassroots, bottom up versus a union movement that is a service organization – one where you pay dues, the union provides service, and when you’re needed you are activated to elect a politician. That’s what it’s all about – a fundamental difference in ideology.
We in NUHW believe that to achieve a progressive majority in this country, so that workers have good paying jobs, affordable housing, quality education and access to quality health care, and all the other things that are important to workers, is only going to happen if there’s a real grassroots bottom up movement of people, much like the civil rights movement of the 1960s. That’s the only way it’s going to be accomplished.
In terms of our fight within SEIU, first of all, NUHW and its predecessor unions were the first healthcare union in the country. Our folks have always had a longtime goal of uniting all healthcare workers together to change their lives. NUHW is not a new union; it’s just a new name. Our leaders have been healthcare workers since the 1970s. We fought hard throughout the 1980s and 90s against the corporatization of health care and our people led changing the way health care workers related to each other.
We worked very hard to get our contracts in hospitals and nursing homes to expire at the same time so that through collective bargaining people could be at their strongest place of leverage and bargain with the industry as a whole.
May 19th, 2010
Hospital workers say USC is hurting patient care with reckless campaign against their own employees
“They’ve turned a place of healing into a battleground,” says one caregiver
LOS ANGELES—Healthcare workers at USC University Hospital make life-and-death decisions every day, but now they have even more to worry about on the job: USC management is waging an aggressive campaign to take away their union and silence their voices on patient care issues.
Two longtime employees have already been illegally suspended and threatened with arrest for talking with their co-workers about their union, and last week hospital CEO Mitch Creem personally ordered security guards to arrest three union organizers while they were eating with workers in the hospital’s public cafeteria.
“We all work here because we want to help our community and provide quality care when people need it most, and the intimidation and new attacks by management are a real distraction,” said Alex Corea, a respiratory therapist at the hospital. “They’ve turned a place of healing into a battleground.”