Unions Set for New Battle in Turf War
By Kris Maher
August 17, 2011
A California union is expected to file charges with federal officials this week alleging that a major health-care system is trying to tilt a workplace election—one of the biggest in U.S. history—to a rival union.
The National Union of Healthcare Workers alleges that in recent weeks Kaiser Permanente in California has let campaign messages from the Service Employees International Union pass through its email system while blocking NUHW emails, and also allowed 50 SEIU stewards to campaign for the union election on company time. Under federal labor law, employers aren’t permitted to give any union preferential treatment over another.
“It’s apparent to us that once again SEIU and Kaiser are breaking the law,” said Sal Rosselli, head of the NUHW, which has about 9,000 members, most of whom formerly belonged to SEIU. The SEIU is one of the biggest unions in the country, with more than two million members.
Read the full article at Wall Street Journal.