News of the Week: Anti-union laws imperil Democrats at the ballot box
Each week we share articles on subjects that are important to NUHW and its members. Here are several must-read stories over the past seven days:
The Napa County Register reported on our legal victory over Queen of the Valley Medical Center. An administrative law judge ruled that the hospital illegally withdrew recognition of the union and retaliated against workers for their union activities. She ordered the hospital to begin good-faith bargaining and rescind retaliatory measures taken against caregivers. But the hospital plans to appeal the ruling to the NLRB.
A New York Times study quantifies just how much worse Democratic candidates perform when right-to-work laws are in place. It’s not a pretty picture. In presidential elections, these laws cost Democratic candidates two to five percentage points in right-to-work counties, the paper estimated. Voter turnout also dropped by approximately two points. That is not trivial, especially considering that Hillary Clinton lost Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016 — two relatively recent right-to-work states — by less than one percentage point each. Democrats were also found to be less likely to win state legislative seats after the passage of right-to-work laws.
Shlomo Rechnitz, who owns the largest nursing home company in California, is suing a tech firm it claims scammed him into making a $4.75 million investment, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Rechnitz claimed the company overstated an investment made by renown angel investor Leonardo DiCaprio. This is the second time in the past year that Rechnitz has claimed to have been bamboozled in an investment venture.
The San Francisco spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement resigned Monday after the agency’s recent Northern California sweep, saying he couldn’t continue to do his job after Trump administration officials made false public statements about a key aspect of the operation, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. James Schwab told the paper on Monday that he was frustrated by repeated statements by officials, including U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that roughly 800 undocumented immigrants escaped arrest because of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s Feb. 24 warning to the public about the four-day operation, issued the night before federal officers began staking out homes and knocking on doors. Schwab wanted the agency to correct the number, which he understood to be far lower, and didn’t want to deflect media questions about it, he said.
A statewide tax on the wealthy has significantly boosted mental health programs in California’s largest county, helping to reduce homelessness, incarceration and hospitalization, according to a report released Tuesday, according to Kaiser Health News. Revenue from the tax, the result of a statewide initiative passed in 2004, also expanded access to therapy and case management to almost 130,000 people up to age 25 in Los Angeles County, according to the report by the Rand Corp. Many were poor and from minority communities, the researchers said.