Kaiser workers sign petition to join new union

A majority of Kaiser Permanente’s 50,000 workers have signed a petition to disaffiliate with United Healthcare Workers West and instead join the newly formed National Union of Healthcare Workers, officials said.

The bargaining unit is one of the largest among the nation’s private-sector employers, and taking it over would be a significant coup for NUHW, officials said.

The new group was created last month by former leaders of UHW after the Oakland-based local was taken over by its parent organization, the Service Employees International Union, the culmination of a long fight over organizing and bargaining methods.

One of the new group’s stated goals was to win the right to represent UHW’s 150,000 members.

Within days of its creation, the fledgling group began filing requests with the National Labor Relations Board for elections at UHW-represented workplaces, saying a majority of workers signed petitions asking to disaffiliate with UHW and join NUHW.

NUHW said it is filing a similar petition for Kaiser’s facilities today, bringing to 80,000 the number of unionized employees in play.

“Hopefully we’ll dole out some justice here,” said Brian Williams, a technician at Kaiser’s Sunset facility, who said he was ousted as UHW’s contract specialist by its new trustees. “If nothing else, it gives our members the choice.”

The 2-million-member SEIU has fought back. More than 100 staffers from across the country have been sent to California to keep workers in UHW and run the local. SEIU officials said some members signed the Kaiser disaffiliation petition without understanding it.

It also has filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing NUHW of violating labor laws by failing to bargain in good faith with employers in advance of the trusteeship.

SEIU said the former leaders of UHW kept contracts open to allow them to make a play for those workers.

In most instances, workers under contract are typically barred from switching unions. UHW’s newly appointed trustees said the “former leaders failed in their duty to represent the members of this union by allowing contract negotiations to languish,” some for as long as eight months.

As a result, the NLRB has launched an investigation and NUHW officials said elections have been postponed on all their petitions.

“It’s just totally made up to simply cause the cancellation of the hearing and investigations by the overburdened NLRB,” said Sal Rosselli, who was ousted as president of UHW by SEIU and is among the leaders of the new union.

He said his local continued to sign strong contracts until the day he was tossed out.

-- Evelyn Larrubia

Comments

[Concerned Worker]

I worked at a non-union job and when we tried to form a union, we were threatened, harassed, and a few of my coworkers were even suspended or fired. How can Andy Stern and SEIU expect Obama to sign EFCA when they're denying their OWN MEMBERS the right to join a union? It's shameful what's going on at SEIU - read perezstern.blogspot.com to get a taste of some of the fearmongering that SEIU is doing. Shame on Sonya, Jigme, and most of all shame on Andy Stern for fulfilling the myth that unions are just organized thugs.

[workingjustice]

This seems like a silly stunt by NUHW. When a contract is in place, workers can't file petitions for a new union until shortly before the contract's expiration. At the SEIU hearings last fall about whether UHW-W should be trusteed, Sal Rosselli boasted about having settled the 5-year Kaiser contract's one re-opener, and Kaiser's own website lists the contract expiration date as September 30, 2010. So any petition about disaffiliation of the union currently representing Kaiser's workers filed now will be dismissed by the NLRB as untimely.

Are there no unrepresented hospital workers left for NUHW to organize?

[amy thigpen, Kaiser Medical Social Worker]

Actually, we have petitioned to decertify, not disaffiliate. And our Kaiser contracts are all beyond three years old. This means that we can decertify under Labor Law.

Regarding the unorganized hospital workers, believe me NUHW will organize them. We (the former UHW) have organized more workers in the last year than all other SEIU locals put together. But first, we've got to get free of our undemocratic international (SEIU) who have wasted our dues money attacking one of the strongest locals in the country. SEIU should be focused on working with the new administration in DC and bargaining better contracts and organizing the unorganized.

The majority has spoken today. After less than a month since the illegal and unfounded trusteeship, the majority of us have petitioned to decertify. We will form our Union, and continue to organize more workers and negotiate the best contracts in the industry for ourselves.

[ExUHWstaffer]

This dispute is about one thing Sal Rosselli motives to be the president of a 390,000 member mega local, and his use of his members as pawns in his internal political fight regarding jurisdiction over long term care workers.
1. If Sal cared about workers not being "sold out" he shouldn’t of played ball with the alliance negotiations with nursing home operators by purposefully not organizing members to not fight to win a larger portion of nearly 1 billion dollars of ab1629 money. Even though anybody involved would tell you that workers were democratically screaming to take more escalating actions. Yet no real actions were taken not even a single picket. There was an ability to strike alliance homes that had traditional full collective bargaining agreements to use as leverage. Why didn’t Sal blow up the alliance then when it mattered in $ in members pocket books. Workers were obviously surprised and happy to win anywhere between $2.25 and $3.50 something they never seen, but what could they have gotten if they had of fought?? His motives? Not to piss off the international before they made up there minds on Jurisdiction (which is strategic decisions on what’s best for long term care workers). Seiu is supposed to be one big family and is supposed to share staff between locals and work together to advance one agenda. Sal used the jurisdictional dispute as a launching pad to argue that this is about bottom up vs. top down. However, he was on the executive committee who was in charge of this "undemocratic" jurisdictional process all seiu locals have undergone. even though long term care workers voted democratically to decide whether they wanted to merge into one long term care local. Sal however, urged them to boycott the election because he knew that if he democratically allowed all long term care workers in ca to vote they would vote to belong to one long term care union and they did. Sal Rosselii got that piece of what he wanted at the convention in Puerto Rico and then said lets boycott what we wanted a democratic vote. Of course Sal wouldn’t have done any of this if he had been granted jurisdiction over long term care workers.
2. Sal purposefully did not launch contract campaigns all last year in nursing homes and elsewhere so that workers wouldn’t have an incentive to stay in seiu. in other words if workers had fought all last year and won good wage increases and benefits etc, they would think twice about joing his NUHW because they would be in essence legally required to bargain all over again and give up any guaranteed increases and possibly set themselves up for less if impasse is imposed . They are few exceptions to this but those decisions were strategically made in order to advance the jurisdictional agenda. THis new union was planned out at the top level for years as the last step in the two year fight for power.
3. Workers were misled and still being lied too, all last year they were under the impression that there union was trying to win a contract with them. Instead they spent millions of dollars on fighting jurisdictional hearings. And now are expected to wait more time while this charge is being investigated and another year if nuhw prevails and begins to bargain maybe sometime next year. I don’t know about you but workers care about now. Of course if they have been spoon fed that the international will sell you out for two years there will be obvious confusion and or cult like support for this so called movement.
4 In the Past in private uhw staff meetings Sal repeatedly said that Kaiser is already subsidizing for the nursing home division and cant offer more staff or add more resources. But then the jurisdictional issue arose and every gung ho college kid was spoon fed the same rap about the big bad international and hired on over night.
5. NUHW is currently telling members who they sold out all last year by not doing contract campaigns that they should not participate in bargaining with seiu even though they can have an election for nuhw uhw or no union if they win a contract with seiu. Because what happens if workers win a contract they may think twice about joining nuhw. A guaranteed increase is what Sal doesnt want for workers during the worst economic crisis since the great depression.
6. Bosses win when workers are not united behind who ever can get them to the table now. Nuhw is with the bosses even though they don’t know it. Bosses have signs up already vote no union and some workers are just thinking why is this happeneing ? Both of you leave me alone.
7. If Sal had put as much energy in ensuring the long term seiu local was doing right for members as a strong ally supporter as the president of the seiu hospital union sharing staff and recourses, off the record advice in order to ensure hospital wages with long term care workers, one member one vote, one industry one standard etc. instead of fighting a internal jurisdictional question, workers would have contracts right now and higher and better standards now during the bad economy. Now all the NUHW supporters and workers are being led like lambs to the slaughter to wait years before they can win a contract. And believe you me the NUHW will be tested by employers and workers will have to fight to win like never before with NUHW. Instead of fighting now with SEIU like never before.
Im an ex staffer of uhw and I resigned because I saw this coming. I hope you can all see think and learn for yourself and ask for the facts not the rhetoric. I can offer 100 examples of Sal's team doing and making undemocratic decsions and in some cases selling out members in order to advance the jurisdictional fight and the political power trip of Sal Rosseli. And even when it seems democratic its not they just organize the workers to vote in whatever way advances jurisdiction over long term care workers.....were organizers thats our job.