April 21st, 2010
Strong showing for NUHW at four Bay Area nursing homes bodes well for future elections
Support for new union endures, even among workers chosen by SEIU to vote first
Oakland, Calif.—Workers at four Bay Area nursing homes owned by Pratap Poddatoori made a strong showing today in an election to change their union from SEIU to the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). The vote was 82 for NUHW, 85 for SEIU, and 4 votes for No Union, meaning neither side won more than half the votes cast. The labor board will schedule a runoff if there is still no majority after the issue of 13 contested ballots is resolved.
Despite coming up a few votes short of a clear victory, workers say they are proud they had a chance to vote and demonstrate their support for NUHW at facilities that SEIU officials claimed were firmly under SEIU’s control. On the eve of the election, SEIU even resorted to cutting a deal with the employer to give certain workers wage increases in order to buy their votes—a violation of federal law that could result in the National Labor Relations Board overturning the election.
“We proved them wrong,” said Linda Brown, a certified nursing assistant at Kyakameena Nursing Home. “SEIU wants to pretend workers don’t support NUHW. But they picked us to vote first, and they still couldn’t win. Our votes show how committed we are to taking back our union.”
April 20th, 2010
In These Times: Andy Stern, the man with a plan who lost his way
By Stephen Franklin
Nor did Stern’s federation do a better job of organizing, as it had promised.
One of the myths about the break-up was that the dissidents wanted to spend more on organizing and less on politics. That was a myth that somehow found a life among news reporters and union leaders.
The reality was that SEIU did spend more organizing—but also spent even more on politics. Some of it worked, and Stern’s close ties with the White House are proof of that. And sometimes it backfired; witness the union’s support for disgraced and impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
No other unions joined the dissidents in their new federation, as Change to Win leaders had predicted. And the new federation’s own unity soon crumbled.
April 16th, 2010
Washington Post: At the peak of his influence, SEIU chief set to leave mixed legacy
By Alec MacGillis
“A combination of events destroyed what ought to have been a great legacy for Andy,” said John Wilhelm, the head of Unite Here, the hotel and garment workers union, with which the SEIU is feuding. “Andy could have been a really great labor leader. He’s a smart guy with a lot of abilities and a strong strategic sense. But something happened to the guy. It says in Scripture that pride goeth before the fall, and that’s what happened here.”
April 15th, 2010
Beyond Chron: Bloody Nose for NUHW, Black-Eye for SEIU
By Carl Finamore
During a pre-trial settlement hearing with Judge Alsup, SEIU made a last-minute offer to drop their suit if NUHW just “shut down.” Defendants responded by stating that “NUHW is not ours to shut down,” recalled former UHW Research Director and defendant Fred Seavey in a conversation with me.
And certainly, NUHW remains standing after this verdict, there was no “knock-out” blow. In fact, just this January, 2,300 nurses and professionals at Kaiser Permanente hospitals voted by a margin of 85%-to-15% to leave SEIU and join NUHW.
Through it all, NUHW remains defiant and intends to appeal the jury’s verdict.
Of particular concern in the appeal, is Judge Alsup’s problematic jury instructions that defendants could not “obstruct or frustrate the ability of UHW or SEIU to carry out the [trusteeship] decision and did not induce others” to do the same after the January 9, 2009 SEIU International Executive Board (IEB) vote to transfer 65,000 UHW long-term healthcare workers out of the local.
These jury instructions, defendants feel, unfairly characterized the legitimate democratic rights of local union members and their elected leadership as being illegal. In effect, the jury instructions biased the jury in favor of SEIU’s central premise that all opposition to the international should have ceased after the January 9 IEB decision. Every dollar assessed in damages springs from defendants’ actions from this date.
April 14th, 2010
USC community fights back against anti-union campaign by SEIU
Basil Nasir, Respiratory Therapist, USC University Hospital“What we’re seeing at USC is the same thing we saw in the Santa Rosa election. It’s what the rest of the labor movement already knows. SEIU is the boss’s union.” Just like at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital where SEIU got just 13 votes out of 662 eligible voters, […]