May 31st, 2009
Fresno Bee: Fresno County vote key for 2 unions
Two unions are battling for votes in Fresno County in an election that labor experts say could affect the unionization of health-care workers nationwide.
The local election to win the allegiance — and paying dues — of 10,000 in-home health-care workers is the largest thus far in a bitter fight between an established union and an upstart launched earlier this year.
May 30th, 2009
Fresno Bee: Homecare workers take back their union
The thing that made me most proud of the union we built was that it was based on a fundamental value we learned from our friends in the disability rights movement: “Make no decision about us without us.” In our union, we elected our own representatives from neighborhoods all over Fresno County, and we made the decisions about our own futures. The era of dignity and respect for home-care workers had begun. We won our current wage of $10.25 an hour and lifted thousands out of poverty.
But by 2009, some of our union’s Washington, D.C., leaders had lost their way. The leaders of the SEIU, our parent union, came to believe that they were smarter than their own members, and that only they should have the right to make decisions for us.
May 29th, 2009
Workers Independent News: NUHW says it has strong support
The National Union Of Healthcare Workers says it has strong support as an election begins for 10,000 home health care workers in California. Doug Cunningham reports.
The Fresno County home health care workers are represented by SEIU. When SEIU took over the United Healthcare West local in a dispute over local union democratic control, many of the local’s leaders formed the National Union of Healthcare Workers. United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta says workers need and deserve to control their union.
May 28th, 2009
Dolores Huerta endorses NUHW in Fresno County homecare election
Click below for the full story, including TV and radio coverage of Wednesday’s rally.
May 28th, 2009
Healthcare workers volunteer to win Fresno election
Click play above for photos of healthcare workers from across California volunteering last weekend to help Fresno homecare workers take back their union.