August 11th, 2010
Huffington Post: labor legend Dolores Huerta rips SEIU for worker intimidation
By Ryan Grim
A legend of the labor movement stepped into the turmoil engulfing organized labor in California on Tuesday, pressing the new head of the Service Employees International Union to call off the war that has been raging on the West Coast over control of union workers.
In an open letter, Dolores Huerta wrote President Mary Kay Henry, thanking her for putting an end to SEIU’s “mistaken campaign of aggression” against UNITE HERE, but charging the union with “a coordinated effort by SEIU leaders in California to deny thousands of healthcare workers their federally-protected right to organize with the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).”
August 11th, 2010
Wall Street Journal: California’s union showdown
By MATTHEW KAMINSKI
Next month in California, nearly 45,000 Kaiser Permanente health-care workers will choose their union. America hasn’t seen a private-sector labor election this big since the United Auto Workers organized Ford in 1941. By the time ballots are cast, tens of millions will have been spent on a six-week campaign as brutal as any political race this year. At stake? No less than the future of America’s most powerful labor group, the Services Employees International Union.
August 11th, 2010
Huffington Post: an open letter to SEIU President Mary Kay Henry
By Dolores Huerta
Ms. Henry:
When I first learned you would become SEIU’s new President, I was filled with hope that you would change SEIU for the better. I am relieved that you have just last week signed an agreement to cease hostilities against Unite Here, putting an end to a mistaken campaign of aggression that put SEIU at odds with the rest of organized labor. You have said that reunifying our movement is one of your goals.
I believe that unity in the labor movement means putting our shared principles above our individual differences. And one of the most fundamental principles we share is that every worker should have the right to organize—to talk with her co-workers about the issues they share, to advocate for collective solutions, and to make the decision to join a union without threats or intimidation.
Yet, over the past month, I have personally witnessed a coordinated effort by SEIU leaders in California to deny thousands of healthcare workers their federally-protected right to organize with the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).
August 5th, 2010
Dangerous conditions at Kaiser Baldwin Park reported to Dept. of Health, OSHA, JCAHO
Despite 2003 shooting, management refuses to take basic steps to protect employees from outsider who threatened their lives
Baldwin Park, Calif.—Workers at Kaiser’s Baldwin Park Medical Center filed complaints with state and federal agencies today, asking for help after Kaiser management failed to ensure the safety of workers and patients in response to death threats by a former employee.
On July 16, the Los Angeles Superior Court issued a restraining order against Tiffany Ford, 47, for making death threats against two Kaiser employees in the hospital cafeteria. Despite the court’s order, Kaiser officials have allowed Ford full access to the hospital where she threatened employees, citing a prior agreement with Ford’s employer, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
August 3rd, 2010
SEIU Steward Council endorses NUHW
95% of SEIU’s workplace leaders switch sides in anticipation of statewide election Sept. 13
Santa Rosa, Calif.—Forty-eight SEIU union stewards at Kaiser Santa Rosa—virtually the entire SEIU Steward Council—announced yesterday that they endorse NUHW in the Sept.13 statewide election for nearly 44,000 Kaiser Permanente workers to switch from SEIU to NUHW.
“We are confident that the best future for our co-workers is with NUHW and not SEIU-UHW,” the 48 Kaiser employees wrote in a letter to their colleagues. “We look forward to voting for NUHW, so we can be part of a union where we make the decisions about our priorities for bargaining and who respresents us on the job and who leads our union.”