NEWS&PRESS

KPFA Evening News on SEIU lawsuit

Click the play button above to hear the KPFA Evening News report on the outcome of SEIU’s lawsuit against 28 union reformers and NUHW. Includes an interview with Michael Torres, a respiratory therapist at USC University Hospital and NUHW supporter. Source: KPFA

New York Times: Union wins damages

By Steven Greenhouse A federal jury in San Francisco awarded more than $1.5 million in damages to the Service Employees International Union on Friday in a lawsuit that accused a breakaway union local and its leaders of illegally undermining the S.E.I.U. The jury ordered the breakaway unit, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, to pay […]

Labor and elected leaders vow to appeal limited award in SEIU’s lawsuit against union reformers

Twelve defendants cleared, but jury orders other former SEIU staff to repay salary and costs because they resisted orders from SEIU’s Washington, D.C. office

SAN FRANCISCO—SEIU’s lawsuit against 28 union reformers came to an end today, with SEIU’s central claims abandoned, twelve defendants cleared of all charges, and a judgment that amounts to a tiny fraction of SEIU’s own legal costs.

“Tens of thousands of healthcare workers are organizing with NUHW for a real voice at work and a democratic voice in their union, and that will continue in spite of this verdict,” said United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, who raised money for the reformers’ legal defense. “These reformers stood up for workers’ right to vote when SEIU tried to take it away, and that’s the only thing they’re guilty of. This judgment sets a bad precedent and the Fund for Union Democracy is committed to supporting an appeal.”

“Watching this trial has made me so proud to be part of NUHW,” said Brenda Washington, an LVN at Grove Street Convalescent who attended the trial. “Our elected leaders took an oath to represent the members who elected them, not SEIU officials in Washington, D.C. They did exactly what the members asked them to do. They knew SEIU would target them personally and they still had the courage to do what was right.”