Posted on November 4, 2014 by dcampbell1
Alana Semuels The Atlantic
Oakland, California. This is the hub of one of the smallest, but most powerful unions in the country. Just 190,000 members strong, National Nurses United is growing while other unions across the country are shrinking. When the autoworkers were agreeing to have some members’ pay cut in half, the nurses fought Arnold Schwarzenegger on patient-to-staff ratios—and won. While public employee unions in states like Michigan and Wisconsin were getting decimated by laws restricting their collective-bargaining rights, the nurses were pushing bills in the California legislature that eventually became law.
National Nurses United may be proof that unions are not all on their way out: Some are very much alive, although they may look a little bit different than they used to.
“Nurses United is among the most innovative and bold of U.S. unions,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at Berkeley. “They’ve emerged as a powerful voice in defense of people who receive health care treatment. Continue reading
Filed under: Economy, Health Care, Organizing, Politics, Women | Tagged: California, CNA, Ebola, National Nurses United, nurses, unions | Leave a comment »
Posted on May 7, 2013 by dsalaborblogmoderator
Little Rock Probably surprising none of the organizers involved or anyone looking at the campaign, the vote count on the rerun decertification election between the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) produced the same result with a wider margin as Kaiser hospital workers in California overwhelming voted for SEIU by almost a 2 to 1 margin, 58.4% to 40.6%. In such a landslide both sides had to have known the outcome for many weeks, and the NUHW and its new partner, the powerful California Nurses’ Association (CNA), likely did not pull the petition simply as a talking point for the future as they engage other healthcare workers and try to put a spin on the defeat. SEIU won this round hands down, but their victory is pyrrhic, if it doesn’t now come with the grace that goes with leadership.
I wouldn’t bet on it, but it would be wonderful, if this closed one chapter for all the unions involved and opened another. This whole division among unions in California has been a disaster for all involved, undermining the stature and reputation of all of the organizations and their leadership, dividing workers from each other therefore only benefiting employers, costing millions, and reducing the strength of all progressive forces everywhere. It has to stop now for the sake of the labor movement and workers everywhere, especially in the healthcare industry.
Filed under: Organizing | Tagged: CNA, Mary Kay Henry, NUHW, Richard Trumka, SEIU | Leave a comment »
Posted on May 7, 2013 by dsalaborblogmoderator
by Steve Early
Thirty-one months ago, when the Service Employees International Union first defeated the National Union of Healthcare Workers in a unit of 45,000 service and technical workers at Kaiser Permanente in California, SEIU leader Dave Regan proclaimed that “NUHW is now, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant.”
That obituary proved a little premature. Rank-and-file supporters of NUHW remained alive and kicking, not only at Kaiser but also in other healthcare workplaces around the state. Using member-based internal and external organizing methods, NUHW largely bucked the national tide of concession bargaining in nearly 20 new units composed of previously unorganized workers or SEIU defectors.
With strong financial backing from its new affiliation partner, the California Nurses Association (CNA), NUHW has been gearing up since January for a re-run of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election at Kaiser. SEIU won the first round in October 2010 with 18,290 votes to NUHW’s 11,364.
Filed under: Organizing | Tagged: California Nurses Association, CNA, Kaiser Permanente, NUHW, SEIU | 1 Comment »
Posted on April 27, 2013 by dsalaborblogmoderator
by Wade Rathke
New Orleans First come the disclaimers. I have no stomach for this 5 year saga in California that has created a huge rift in the labor movement as folks picked sides between the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the National Union of Healthcare Workers’ (NUHW). Depending on how you line up, NUHW is either a principled group of dissidents trying to reform SEIU and the whole labor movement and bring it back to its roots or a band of renegades who broke when they didn’t get everything on their Christmas list from SEIU.
Regardless the ballots are now out to the workers of the huge 45,000 member bargaining unit at Kaiser Hospitals on the question of whether or not to decertify the existing bargaining unit, SEIU, or to certify NUHW. Starting May 1st the ballots are due and the counting will begin, perhaps to put an end to all of this or maybe to simply open another chapter in his horrible mess. This is a re-run election. SEIU won the first round by a large margin, but the election was overturned by the NLRB based on findings of unfair labor practices in the way that Kaiser favored SEIU before the vote.
[Readers may be interested in our recent reports on the upcoming SEIU-NUHW election by Carl Finamore Steve Early, and Harold Meyerson, as well as coverage of the background to this election.–Talking Union]
Filed under: Organizing | Tagged: CNA, Kaiser Hospitals, NUHW, SEIU | 1 Comment »
Posted on April 15, 2013 by dsalaborblogmoderator
Which way will 45,000 California healthcare workers swing? The answer has major implications for labor
By Steve Early
For seventy years, there was no bigger union representation vote in the private sector than the 2010 election involving 45,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente (KP), the giant health care chain in California. Now, the same labor and management parties are engaged in a costly re-match with wider implications for labor.
The initial election pitted the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) against its new California rival, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). SEIU, the incumbent union, retained its bargaining rights by the healthy margin of 18,290 to 11,364. But, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), that victory was tainted by SEIU misbehavior similar to that of anti-union employers—the kind of tactics usually termed “union-busting.” Over SEIU’s objections, the NLRB ordered a re-run of unprecedented scale.
Filed under: Organizing | Tagged: CNA, Kaiser Permanente, NUHW, SEIU | 2 Comments »
Posted on January 9, 2013 by dsalaborblogmoderator
by Harold Meyerson
As a rule, most merger or affiliation announcements between two organizations tend to the celebratory: Each group brings a proud history and now have joined together to create an even prouder future, yadda yadda. But not last Thursday’s press release from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA), which proclaimed its affiliation with the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) in an announcement largely devoted to attacking the presumed perfidy of the Service Employees International Union, with which NUHW has been engaged in a prolonged blood feud that puts the Hatfields and McCoys to shame.
Filed under: Organizing | Tagged: CNA, NUHW, SEIU | 5 Comments »
Posted on January 4, 2013 by dsalaborblogmoderator
by Steve Early
(Jan 3, 2013) Today, the California Nurses Association (CNA) and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) announced a formal affiliation, solidifying an already potent alliance. Two of the biggest strikes against concessions in the last 16 months were conducted by members of the CNA and NUHW. Their target each time was Kaiser Permanente, the giant California health care chain that made $6 billion in profits since 2009 but still wants union job cuts and contract givebacks.
Last August, CNA and NUHW formed an “Alliance of Kaiser Unions” dedicated to “raising standards for Kaiser caregivers and protecting Kaiser patients.” In its founding statement, the Alliance blasted the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the SEIU-dominated Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions (CKPU) for choosing “to partner with Kaiser to increase the corporation’s profitability at the expense of their own members and patients.” The CKPU includes both AFL-CIO and Change To Win affiliates.
On January 3, CNA and NUHW took their recent workplace collaboration a step further, unveiling NUHW’s formal affiliation with CNA at a press conference in Oakland attended by activists from both unions. CNA and NUHW will now jointly seek decertification of SEIU in a unit of 43,000 service and technical employees at Kaiser.
Filed under: Organizing | Tagged: CNA, NHUW, SEIU | 1 Comment »