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.
April 27th, 2010
Healthcare workers and allies demand SEIU submit to fair elections at 77 facilities after justice denied at 16 nursing homes
Oakland, Calif.—Healthcare workers gathered outside the Clay Street office of the National Labor Relations Board today to demand the right to vote for thousands of SEIU members who want to change their union to the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), and also to demand that the labor board take action to stop SEIU’s campaign of intimidation against NUHW supporters.
Nursing home workers announced that SEIU’s 15-month strategy of procedural delays and harassment in their workplaces had made fair elections impossible in some places, and that workers at 16 nursing homes had made the difficult decision to regroup and fight another day. NUHW’s elected executive board passed a resolution in support of workers’ decision.
April 26th, 2010
Socialist Worker: A new direction after Stern
By Lee Sustar
WHETHER HE was pushed or jumped, Andy Stern’s resignation as president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) highlights the failure of top-down, corporate-style unionism—and underscores the need for democratic, militant unions run by rank-and-file members.
What seemed like indisputable successes for the SEIU not so long ago have turned out to be hollow. The SEIU claims to be the second biggest union in the U.S., with 2.2 million members—but critics dispute that number, claiming that it includes free riders who pay agency fees for SEIU representation, but not union dues.
In any case, SEIU locals, especially those in the public sector, took their share of the hit in the loss of 800,000 workers from the union rolls during the recession year of 2009—losses that are likely to continue in 2010 given the weak recovery and continued mass layoffs in the public sector.
April 24th, 2010
Workers choose NUHW at CCMS
“We’ve taken our union back. They told us we couldn’t do it, but we did. I’m so happy we won and that we have a voice in our workplace again.” — Marilyn Aquino, Certified Nursing Assistant Workers at a Foresight-owned nursing home voted 23 to 16 today to change their union from SEIU to the […]
April 23rd, 2010
Caregivers choose NUHW at CCMS
Workers pull off another upset despite SEIU’s last-minute bid to stop election; Foresight workers demand elections at six other nursing homes
SAN FRANCISCO—Workers at a Foresight-owned nursing home voted 23 to 16 today to change their union from SEIU to the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), a member-led union established by healthcare workers after SEIU’s takeover of their local union.
“We’ve taken our union back,” said Marilyn Aquino, a certified nursing assistant for seven years at Convalescent Center Mission Street (CCMS). “They told us we couldn’t do it, but we did. I’m so happy we won and that we have a voice in our workplace again.”
The win at CCMS comes after another hard-fought victory at Prison Health Services earlier this week. After SEIU’s embarassing loss at Prison Health Services—an election SEIU officials were confident they could win—SEIU’s lawyers contacted the National Labor Relations Board to beg for the CCMS election to be postponed. The board refused.