March 31st, 2010
In These Times: SEIU vs. NUHW week one: plaintiffs make case, without evidence
By Carl Finamore
Is it unlawful for locally elected union leaders to vigorously defend their members even when in sharp conflict with the international union? This is the real issue posed. Allegations of fiduciary malfeasance only shroud widely differing concepts of union democracy. In that sense, this is fundamentally a political trial and not about misappropriation of funds.
It all started a few years ago, when UHW expressed disagreement with the international union’s proposal to unilaterally remove 65,000 long-term healthcare workers from the local without the approval of these affected workers.
Opposition began to fester because SEIU President Andy Stern sought to transfer these UHW members into a local headed by his close ally, Tyrone Freeman, who was widely thought to be corrupt and ineffective at improving workers’ wages and benefits. (Freeman is now under criminal investigation by federal authorities and has been removed from office.)
March 27th, 2010
Recorder: Bad blood boils in union battle
Trial pits rebels against the SEIU
In the coming days, one of President Obama’s closest labor allies could take the stand in a fierce trial pitting the Service Employees International Union against a rebel breakaway.
But there’s a bit of a backstory between SEIU and the lawyer who would cross-examine SEIU President Andrew Stern.
Daniel Siegel, a politically active attorney with Siegel & Yee in Oakland, represents the National Union of Healthcare Workers. NUHW split off from SEIU last year, the culmination of a public struggle between Stern and NUHW President Sal Rosselli. Rosselli savaged Stem’s leadership, while Stern accused Rosselli’s local of financial improprieties, eventually imposing a trusteeship.
March 25th, 2010
Beyond Chron: defying health care advocates, SEIU-UHW backs Sutter’s CPMC Mega-Hospital
By Randy Shaw
Breaking with a large coalition of community groups and citywide health care advocates, SEIU-UHW has agreed to publicly support Sutter Health’s controversial 550-bed CPMC mega-hospital planned for San Francisco. The proposed project has aroused widespread opposition among citywide health care advocates, as it is linked with Sutter’s plan to reduce acute care beds by 60% at its St. Luke’s Hospital in the city’s heavily Latino Mission District. This has spawned a broad “Coalition for Health Planning — San Francisco” to address principles of health justice and equity in the city.
In addition, a broad “Good Neighbor Coalition” (GNC) of groups including St. Anthony’s Foundation Medical Clinic, Meals on Wheels, and the Housing and Urban Health division of the city’s Department of Public Health have spent months preparing a Community Benefits Agreement to address the impacts of Sutter’s proposal. The GNC seeks to ensure that the project does not negatively impact the surrounding community, and “that medical services provided are accessible, affordable, and equitably distributed.” But even before negotiations could begin, SEIU-UHW cut its own deal with Sutter on March 11, 2010, unconditionally backing the project.
March 17th, 2010
Democracy on Trial: SEIU’s $25 million lawsuit against union reformers goes to court Monday
SAN FRANCISCO—For the last year, SEIU officials in Washington, D.C. have been suing 29 local union reformers and whistleblowers who exposed the union’s corruption and backroom deals and helped healthcare workers protect their democratic right to join a new union after a hostile takeover.
On Monday, SEIU lawyers will have to argue their case in a trial that labor journalists and historians say is an unprecedented attack on workers’ right to a democratic voice in their union.
“Are elected union leaders accountable to the workers who elected them, or must they only take orders from above, even when workers oppose it?” asked Cal Winslow, historian and author of Labor’s Civil War in California: the NUHW Healthcare Workers’ Rebellion.
“SEIU is advancing a dangerous legal theory that leaders can be personally targeted to collect damages, even when there is no allegation of personal gain, simply because of a difference of opinion.”
March 17th, 2010
The Californian: Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital workers to vote on union switch
By Mike Hornick
Caregivers at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital will have from April 22 to May 13 to vote by mail whether to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers and leave Service Employees International Union.
A majority of hospital workers petitioned last month to join NUHW. California’s Public Employment Relations Board has validated their petition and scheduled the dates for the 850 workers to vote. Votes will be counted May 17.
“We’re bargaining our contract next August, and we need a union we can count on,” Esther Nuñez, a cashier and chief steward, said in a news release. “We want to bring back democracy and integrity in our union. We’ve seen the takeaways SEIU agreed to at Kaiser and at other hospitals this year, and we’re not going to let that happen to us.”