May 10th, 2010
Beyond Chron: SEIU President Henry faces test over Raynor bombshell
By Randy Shaw
A three-member judicially-sanctioned panel has found that SEIU Executive Vice-President Bruce Raynor accepted a salary from UNITE HERE while working actively to deprive his union of bargaining rights – in favor of an Ontario affiliate that had seceded from UNITE HERE two months earlier. The finding poses an early test for new SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, who has vowed to repair SEIU’s relations with other unions. Since Raynor was paid by one union while working to benefit another, he engaged in the same type of conduct that SEIU found so wrongful that it spent over $10 million to punish NUHW in a lawsuit. Yet SEIU rewarded Raynor with a top union position for engaging in conduct it told their workers and the court that SEIU opposed.
May 10th, 2010
Los Angeles Times: SEIU picks Mary Kay Henry as president
By Patrick J. McDonnell
“Mary Kay has a fundamental lack of respect for workers in deciding the course of their union and their contract,” said Tony Aidukas, an NUHW interim board member who works as a rehab specialist at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs.
In her official SEIU biography, Henry is extolled as the architect of “groundbreaking agreements” with major hospital chains such as Catholic Healthcare West and Tenet Healthcare Corp., which runs nine hospitals in California, including Desert Regional.
NUHW supporters allege that Henry negotiated behind workers’ backs during difficult 2006-07 contract talks with Tenet. Workers found out about proposed give-backs — including an extended no-strike guarantee and a plan to allow subcontracting of up to 12% of jobs — and rose up in revolt against the deal, according to Aidukas, who was on the local SEIU bargaining team at the time.
“SEIU was not looking out for the interests of its dues-paying members, but was looking to expand its membership,” Aidukas said in an e-mail to The Times.
May 7th, 2010
NUHW 38, SEIU Zero: USC University Hospital Sodexo workers join NUHW
Sodexo workers at USC University Hospital joined NUHW in an election on Thursday. The count was 38 for NUHW, 14 for No Union, and no votes for SEIU. More than 700 USC University Hospital caregivers and professionals will vote in their election on May 26-27.
May 6th, 2010
Lakewood Sodexo workers join NUHW
Dietary and EVS workers at Lakewood Regional Medical Center voted overwhelmingly to change their union from SEIU-SWU to NUHW. After delaying workers’ election for an entire year, SEIU got only one vote. The combined total votes from the two elections was 23 NUHW, 14 No Union, and 1 SEIU.
May 3rd, 2010
Talking Union: With new president will SEIU change?
By Paul Garver
What I hope for, but do not dare expect, is a positive resolution of California’s civil war with the NUHW. As Steve Early points out, Mary Kay Henry and her supporters among the Executive Vice-Presidents may be too personally committed to that battle. The best hope for SEIU reform is a decisive NUHW victory in union representational elections against SEIU at Kaiser Permanente and other hospital chains. That could provide a salutary shock and unblock the path to deeper reforms within SEIU.