January 7th, 2010
Suzanne Gordon: Why Kaiser RNs should back NUHW (Beyond Chron)
(Ed note: A two day election starts today at Kaiser Sunset Hospital in Los Angeles, where nurses will be deciding whether to leave SEIU and join NUHW. Suzanne Gordon has written or edited eight books about nursing and health care, and recently published a study of the Kaiser labor-management partnership called Healing Together)
RNs today face mounting difficulties. Hospital budget-cutting is once again eliminating the jobs of nurses and increasing their workloads — a trend that may only get worse due to the troubled state of our local economy and “health care reform” in Washington that may fall short of our hopes and needs.
Even at a health care employer as heavily unionized and profitable as Kaiser, we see the danger signs: cost-cutting that could lead to under-staffing and erosion of quality patient care. At such a critical moment, nurses need an organization that can advocate effectively for their own interests and those of their patients.
January 6th, 2010
AUDIO: Voting underway for 2,300 Kaiser professionals to quit SEIU and join NUHW
Election includes 900 registered nurses at Kaiser’s largest L.A.-area hospital and 1,400 professionals across Southern California
Local audio clips and photos:
San Diego: Jim Clifford, Therapist, Kaiser San Diego
[Photo | MP3]
Los Angeles: Tessie Costales, Registered Nurse at Kaiser Sunset/LAMC
[Photo | MP3]
Inland Empire: Marty Needleman, Psychiatric Social Worker, Kaiser Fontana
[Photo | MP3]
Bakersfield: Stacy Eldridge, Registered Dietitian, Kaiser Bakersfield
[Photo | MP3]
Southern California—Healthcare professionals at nearly one hundred Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics are voting today to switch unions. They say their old union, the Service Employees union or S-E-I-U, has shut them out of negotiations with employers—and cut deals that hurt healthcare workers and their patients.
The 2,300 workers include registered nurses, therapists, dietitians, and psychiatric social workers across Southern California. They’re part of an exodus of more than 100,000 S-E-I-U members who are organizing to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers, or N-U-H-W.
December 30th, 2009
Press Democrat: Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital challenges union election
Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital has asked the National Labor Relations Board to nullify the union election held at the hospital two weeks ago.
In a formal objection, the hospital claims the National Union of Healthcare Workers engaged in coercion and intimidation that prevented “the free expression of the employees choice.”
The NUHW dismissed the move, calling it an effort to discredit an election the hospital knows it lost.
December 28th, 2009
Why we’re voting NUHW
Hear why members and leaders of the Healthcare Professionals Chapter, Psych-social Chapter, and American Federation of Nurses are voting NUHW to take back our union. Have questions about the election for Kaiser professionals? Get answers.
December 24th, 2009
In These Times: Upstart Union Deals Blow to SEIU, Raises Prospects for Future Fights
The union organizing effort at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in California’s Sonoma county could be seen as a labor version of the David and Goliath story.
When the disputed votes cast last week are resolved, it seems virtually certain that the newly established National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) will have won the biggest hospital organizing election of the year, overcoming both a strong employer anti-union campaign and a large-scale effort but ultimately embarrassingly weak performance by the giant Service Employees union (SEIU).