April 26th, 2010
Socialist Worker: A new direction after Stern
By Lee Sustar
WHETHER HE was pushed or jumped, Andy Stern’s resignation as president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) highlights the failure of top-down, corporate-style unionism—and underscores the need for democratic, militant unions run by rank-and-file members.
What seemed like indisputable successes for the SEIU not so long ago have turned out to be hollow. The SEIU claims to be the second biggest union in the U.S., with 2.2 million members—but critics dispute that number, claiming that it includes free riders who pay agency fees for SEIU representation, but not union dues.
In any case, SEIU locals, especially those in the public sector, took their share of the hit in the loss of 800,000 workers from the union rolls during the recession year of 2009—losses that are likely to continue in 2010 given the weak recovery and continued mass layoffs in the public sector.
April 24th, 2010
Workers choose NUHW at CCMS
“We’ve taken our union back. They told us we couldn’t do it, but we did. I’m so happy we won and that we have a voice in our workplace again.” — Marilyn Aquino, Certified Nursing Assistant Workers at a Foresight-owned nursing home voted 23 to 16 today to change their union from SEIU to the […]
April 23rd, 2010
Caregivers choose NUHW at CCMS
Workers pull off another upset despite SEIU’s last-minute bid to stop election; Foresight workers demand elections at six other nursing homes
SAN FRANCISCO—Workers at a Foresight-owned nursing home voted 23 to 16 today to change their union from SEIU to the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), a member-led union established by healthcare workers after SEIU’s takeover of their local union.
“We’ve taken our union back,” said Marilyn Aquino, a certified nursing assistant for seven years at Convalescent Center Mission Street (CCMS). “They told us we couldn’t do it, but we did. I’m so happy we won and that we have a voice in our workplace again.”
The win at CCMS comes after another hard-fought victory at Prison Health Services earlier this week. After SEIU’s embarassing loss at Prison Health Services—an election SEIU officials were confident they could win—SEIU’s lawyers contacted the National Labor Relations Board to beg for the CCMS election to be postponed. The board refused.
April 22nd, 2010
Prison Health Services workers join NUHW
Kim Tovar, Medical Records Technician, Prison Health Services
Prison Health Services workers at the Glenn Dyer Detention Facility and Santa Rita Jail voted 66 to 59 to join NUHW! It was a close election and we fought hard to win every last vote of support.
When the ballots were counted this afternoon, we knew that we were uniting in the strongest union for ourselves and our families.
We did this even though SEIU thought they’d scared us out of voting for NUHW. PHS is another one of the facilities SEIU hand-picked to vote first because they thought we would lose.
But after all SEIU said and did, we made up our own minds and made the choice that was right for us.
April 21st, 2010
Workers at Prison Health Services vote NUHW in stunning upset
Against all odds, workers prevail at facility chosen by SEIU to vote first
Oakland, Calif.—Prison Health Services workers at the Glenn Dyer Detention Facility and Santa Rita Jail became the newest members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) today in a 66-to-59 vote that was a stunning upset against the SEIU.
“I’m so ecstatic,” said Kim Tovar, a medical records technician at Glenn Dyer. “When I saw we’d won, I just couldn’t believe it. After everything SEIU did to scare us and divide us, we showed that healthcare workers really do want a democratic union that we control. Today the division ends, and we can start uniting our co-workers to win on the issues that are most important to us at PHS.”