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.”
May 18th, 2010
Monterey County Weekly: Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital workers oust SEIU
By Robin Urevich
Salinas Valley employees, including licensed vocational nurses, respiratory therapists, and clerical staff, voted nearly two to one to join the National Union of Health Care Workers, an upstart group led by former SEIU officials who charge their former union with running roughshod over the rights of workers to have a voice in the organization. NUHW was formed last year when local leaders resisted plans to break up their 150,000 member statewide health care local, and transfer a third of the membership to an SEIU affiliate based in Los Angeles. At Salinas Valley, NUHW won 402 votes, to 242 for SEIU, while 13 workers voted no union.
May 18th, 2010
Monterey County Herald: Caregivers dump SEIU, vote to join new union
By Lane Wallace
Caregivers at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital have voted to leave Service Employees International Union and join the rival National Union of Healthcare Workers.
Results, announced Monday after three weeks of voting by mail, shows 408 votes for the health care union, 242 votes for SEIU, and 13 votes for no union. The local union represents more than 830 workers, including respiratory care practitioners, licensed vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants, clerical workers and others.
May 18th, 2010
The Californian: Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital workers switch unions
By Kimber Solana
Caregivers at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital chose to switch unions following three weeks of voting, officials said Monday.
The group, which includes respiratory care practitioners, licensed vocational nurses, and nursing assistants, voted to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers and cut ties with the Service Employees International Union.
“We wanted to decide for us,” said Ernesto Gonzales, a nutrition service aide of 14 years experience who voted for the move. “We switched because [NUHW] are people that we know and trust. We didn’t want [SEIU] to take that away.”