SEIU Voice

Website for a new National Union of Healthcare Workers launched!

Thu, 29 Jan 2009

NUHW is a new union formed by the democratically elected Executive Board members and stewards of SEIU United Healthcare Workers - West (UHW) who were forced from office by SEIU President Andy Stern for insisting that frontline healthcare workers have the right to vote on who should represent them and the right to participate fully in bargaining contracts with their employers.

Please visit the NUHW website at www.nuhw.org

United Healthcare Workers Holding Our Ground - by Amy Thigpen

Wed, 28 Jan 2009

Last night I slept on the kind of carpet you don't really want to examine too closely. It's splotched with decades of coffee stains and salsa and too many conversations still seem to hang in the stale air, but there I was, curled up on my air mattresses in the union hall in downtown Oakland, the home of United Healthcare Workers West, my union. On my right my sister the Medical Assistant slept peacefully, on my left my sister the Call Center Representative, across my sister the Ultrasound Technician, and my sister the Optical Technician. All of them healthcare workers, member leaders and officers in our union. I realized that I loved this stale, stained room, with carpets held together by duct tape, I love the room because it holds the waking dreams of my sister and brothers in UHW-W. The place may be held together by duct tape but we as a union are held together by something stronger.

Whenever my union brothers or sisters ask me to do something, anything -- lead a chant, bargain over working conditions, join them on the picket line -- I say yes. Why? Because everything I've been part of as a steward and Medical Social Worker with UHW for the last two years has been about furthering a cause that is just and right and about empowering workers. And not just any workers, workers who provide in-home care for elders: bathing them, cleaning their homes, feeding them, people who do the work that matters most, even though it's often valued least.

Convalescent workers and homecare workers get paid far less than their colleagues in the hospitals. But as members of UHW, Hospital workers and Long Term Care workers are joined together in one statewide healthcare union. We've raised standards for all, including some of the best wages and benefit packages under the Mariner contracts settled late last year. And when I say we've raised the standards, I mean we. We bargain our own contracts, we elect our leaders from stewards to our executive board of rank and file members. So why are we sleeping in the union hall?

Despite all of the member-led success of UHW, our International Union -- SEIU -- placed us in trusteeship today. It's a long story, and a very well publicized one, but it's really not a new story. It's an old one, about leaders, in this case, Andy Stern, president of the International Union, forgetting who they represent. It's a story about a few people, our International Executive Board, who care more about concentrating power than the reality of the workers they are supposed to represent.

So we're sleeping in the UHW hall and we're unified in our worksites, only unfortunately instead of concentrating our efforts on fighting for better wages or working conditions or patient care, we have to fight our own International Union. At a time when our country has pulled together in an historic way, putting the needs of the collective above the few and the privileged, it's a terrible irony that Andy Stern would choose to attack and destroy, instead of building on this momentum. Luckily, though Stern and his trustees may have forgotten about workers, people like my sisters and brothers have not, and we will not.

Tonight I'm going to sleep on the stained carpet again surrounded by my sisters and brothers. If Stern and his trustees disturb us, try to bust into the Hall, cut off the power, the water, we'll resist. We'll hold this duct taped hall as long as we can, and if we have to yield our hall, we'll take our fight to the facilities, to the courts. We will hold our union and build our union. How am I so sure? Because I believe in the power of each of us bound to the next by common values and a common goal: to improve the lives of healthcare workers and patients, a goal we're all ready to lose sleep over, to fight for and to win.

-Amy Thigpen

{Amy Thigpen is a Medical Social Worker and a member of UHW.}

UHW's Rejection of Andy Stern's Decision to Impose Trusteeship in Response to UHW's Request for Members' Right to Vote

Tue, 27 Jan 2009

Today's action by Andy Stern imposing a trusteeship against the members of United Healthcare West has the effect of declaring martial law against those advocating for the right to vote and other democratic principles in their own union.

UHW has rejected this imposition.

It's doubly ironic in that Stern has tried to position himself as the leading champion of the Employee Free Choice Act which would give unorganized workers the freedom to choose a union, while he is unwilling to give the members of SEIU a free choice within their union.

UHW strongly opposes Andy Stern's attempt to eliminate democracy and self-determination in our union simply because we have advocated for the right of members to vote before they are transferred from one SEIU local union to another, or because we believe that UHW members, rather than Andy Stern's D.C. appointees, should control the collective bargaining relationship with the employer.

At a time when the entire labor movement should be united to win real labor law and healthcare reform, we are appalled that SEIU would choose to create this discord and disharmony in our movement.

# # #

Healthcare workers answer SEIU ultimatum

Mon, 26 Jan 2009

Press Release:

Healthcare workers answer SEIU ultimatum
United Healthcare Workers call for a fair vote by members—and challenge Washington, D.C. officials to honor workers' right to choose their local union

OAKLAND, Calif.—On Friday, SEIU officials in Washington, D.C. gave United Healthcare Workers (UHW) an ultimatum: support the undemocratic transfer of 65,000 nursing home and homecare workers out of UHW against their will, or face an immediate takeover and the expulsion of more than 70 healthcare workers who were elected to lead the local union.

Today, UHW's elected executive board sent a letter challenging SEIU President Andy Stern to a fair vote by those 65,000 union members, and calling on him to accept workers' right to determine their own future.

"Given the enormity of this decision and its vast implications for UHW members," the executive board wrote, "such a decision should be enacted by a fair membership vote on a local-by-local basis, not by executive fiat."

The letter calls for a democratic voting process that is "consistent with the SEIU Constitution and follows the model of the merger between Local 250 and Local 399 that led to the creation of UHW in 2005, and the various mergers, including most recently of 1199NJ, and other local unions into 1199UHE." The proposal also asks SEIU to respect the right of UHW caregivers to elect their own representatives in bargaining with employers, and the right of unorganized healthcare workers to choose to join UHW.

Finally, it calls for a mediated process to re-integrate UHW into SEIU, followed by a collaborative process between SEIU, UHW, and the new statewide long-term care union that could eventually allow long-term care workers and other healthcare workers to reunite in a statewide healthcare workers' union, if they chose to do so through a fair and democratic vote consistent with the SEIU constitution.

"All we want is the fundamental rights that all union members should have," said Ruby Guzman, a certified nursing assistant and union steward at Creekside Healthcare Center in San Pablo. "The right to vote on what union we will belong to, and the right to elect leaders who represent us. If national SEIU leaders will agree to protect those rights, we are ready to reconcile our differences and move forward for the greater good of the labor movement and our vision of a more just and democratic society."

UHW's proposal was discussed and voted on over the weekend by more than 5,000 elected union stewards representing the local union's 150,000 members. It was approved this morning by UHW's elected executive board.

# # #

With more than 150,000 members, SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West is the fastest-growing healthcare union in the United States. We represent healthcare workers in all job classifications and all healthcare settings, including hospitals, homecare, nursing homes and clinics. Our mission is to achieve high-quality healthcare for all. | www.seiu-uhw.org

Download the statement approved today by the UHW Executive Board in response to SEIU's action regarding trusteeship of our union.

SEIU Caught Putting Trusteeship of UHW into Action Before Hearing Results In

Wed, 21 Jan 2009

Sign our Petition: http://www.seiuvoiceaskobama.org

UHW rank and file members pay a visit to a secret SEIU office whose sole purpose is to wrest control of the entire West Coast health care workers union. A confidential list reveals top SEIU officers and staff coming to California to direct the hostile takeover even though hearing officer, former Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall, has yet to announce his decision.

Washington Post: Trouble in SEIU May Dim Hopes for Labor

By Alec McGillis

President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for labor secretary will go before Congress today embodying the hopes of a movement that views Obama's victory as a chance to reverse years of union decline. But labor's prospects are already being shadowed by controversies besetting the Service Employees International Union, the country's fastest-growing union and one that has gone from being seen as a savior of the movement to a favored target of its opponents.

The SEIU is contending with corruption allegations involving several appointees of President Andy Stern, including the president of a Los Angeles local who was fired for allegedly funneling money to his relatives and friends.

The union has also been linked to the federal investigation into Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), who was taped speculating about getting a job with an SEIU-led labor alliance and who met with a top SEIU official to discuss filling Obama's Senate seat. There is no allegation of SEIU wrongdoing, but the episode has drawn attention to the union's reliance on cultivating politicians.

A power struggle in the union is also coming to a head, with the SEIU board voting today on whether to break up a large Northern California branch at odds with Stern.

Labor supporters invested heavily in the 2008 election and are thrilled with Obama's nomination of Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.), who grew up in a union family. But they worry that the SEIU controversies will deplete support for their agenda in Washington, including in a looming battle over the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for unions to form.

The bill, dubbed "card check," would make it possible to form a union by collecting cards from a majority of workers, rather than through a secret-ballot election. Business groups say this would expose workers to union intimidation, while unions contend that the current system leads to unfair pressure from employers before elections. Union leaders cite such pressure as a reason why organized labor has shrunk to representing 7 percent of private-sector workers.

Herman Benson, founder of the Association for Union Democracy, a pro-labor watchdog group, said the SEIU controversies and its move against the Northern California chapter, in particular, are a "serious problem" for labor.

"What they are doing is giving ammunition to right-wing anti-labor forces by denying their own members the same rights that they are asking Congress to give workers," he said.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) said the problems at the SEIU would not help the card-check bill, which he said he hopes will still pass. It "doesn't make it any easier, but you can't overlook the fundamental need for this legislation," he said.

For the complete article, click here.

Press Release: UHW Members Call on SEIU to Schedule Disaffiliation Vote

Sun, 11 Jan 2009

"Widespread and Profound Opposition" Cited

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OAKLAND, Calif.—In response to letters, petitions and other requests from members employed at healthcare facilities and worksites across California, the Executive Board of SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW), consistent with provisions contained in the Service Employees International Union International Constitution, has sent a letter today to SEIU President Andy Stern requesting that he schedule a vote of the local union’s 150,000 members to formally disaffiliate from the Washington, D.C.-based SEIU.

The petitions submitted to the Executive Board cite various concerns that have led members to request the disaffiliation vote:

•   The forced removal of 65,000 long-term care members from UHW;
•   The stifling of union members’ free speech rights;
•    Widespread corruption by Stern-appointed union leaders.

In making its request, and consistent with the SEIU Constitution, the UHW Executive Board is not taking a position in support of disaffiliation. The SEIU Constitution, in a new section passed at the controversial 2008 convention in Puerto Rico, specifically states that “no officer or local union or affiliated body shall support or assist any efforts to dissolve, secede or disaffiliate from the [Service Employees] International Union.”

In its letter to Stern, the UHW executive board acknowledges its obligations regarding disaffiliation under the SEIU Constitution, and adds that, “Nonetheless, we consider ourselves required by our duties to our members and to the SEIU to report to you that we believe there is widespread and profound opposition within our membership to any efforts to dismember our local union or to take away its rights of democratic governance. . . .”

According to the SEIU Constitution, a disaffiliation vote could be scheduled in as soon as sixty (60) days.

For a PDF of the full letter to Andy Stern, click here.

SEIU's resolution to dismantle UHW against members' will

Sat, 10 Jan 2009

The attached document includes the full text of the resolution approved by the SEIU International Executive Board on Friday, Jan. 9.

Click here [PDF].

Labor Notes: Service Employees Vote to Split United Healthcare Workers-West, Members Call for Disaffiliation

Sat, 10 Jan 2009

By Mark Brenner

The Service Employees’ internal battle took a decisive turn January 9, when the union’s top body approved plans to create a single local union for all of SEIU’s nursing home and homecare workers in California. This move would take 65,000 long-term care workers out of United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW), the union’s third largest local.

In response, UHW’s executive board notified SEIU President Andy Stern that rank-and-file members are calling for a disaffiliation referendum for the entire local within 60 days.

Based in Oakland, the 150,000-member UHW has clashed repeatedly with its parent union over the past year, publicly criticizing SEIU’s top leaders for shutting rank-and-file members out of bargaining and accepting lower standards for existing members in exchange for organizing rights at non-union workplaces.

The union's decision to consolidate California’s long-term care workers reflects SEIU’s decade-long strategy of creating large statewide or multi-state "megalocals."

SEIU leaders argue that strength lies in numbers. Where locals are clearly defined along industrial lines, the union has clout with employers and politicians.

UHW leaders have countered that this logic calls for all health care workers to be in the same union, and that their more aggressive stance toward employers has brought long-term care workers in UHW better contracts.

They also insist that rank-and-file members--not officials in Washington--must have the final say over the union's local structure.

Although SEIU released no official tally from the January 9 vote, reports indicate 47 board members voted in favor of the international's plan, seven against, with three abstaining.

For the complete article, click here.

Democracy Now!: Questions raised about SEIU action

Fri, 09 Jan 2009

Juan Gonzalez: In another update of a story or segment that we did yesterday, the Service Employees International Union had this emergency meeting of their executive committee, 40-member executive committee by phone yesterday to act on what they were going to do with United Healthcare Workers-West of California, and apparently Andy Stern was not able to immediately get a decision by his executive board. There appeared to be some opposition to the move, and Stern instead pushed through an electronic vote of his executive board, and the results will be available around 2 p.m. today, so we won’t know for sure what they’re doing.

Some of the executive board members were saying, as I’m told by sources they were asking, why do we have to do this now when we have a face-to-face meeting in about a week of the SEIU, why is Stern pushing this through?

Amy Goodman: For listeners and viewers who missed yesterday’s broadcast, the significance of what Andy Stern and the SEIU is trying to do right now?

Juan Gonzalez: Well, this is a major attempt to consolidate one of the most important locals in SEIU, and to remove the leadership of the United Healthcare Workers-West, which has been one of the most vocal internal critics for more union democracy within SEIU.

I have to note also that on this show, we often criticize the corporate media for failing to cover major stories. I have to say that some of our press in the progressive community have also been lax. Organizations like The Nation magazine have not covered this issue at all. Neither have Common Dreams, the progressive website. In fact, I know from direct experience that over the last year, two columns that I wrote in the Daily News that I tried to get Common Dreams to disseminate – which they normally do of many columns around the country – that have to do with SEIU, their attempted takeover and collusion with the Puerto Rico government, of the Puerto Rico teachers union earlier this year, and then in the past week, this battle within SEIU – for some reason, Common Dreams has declined to disseminate those columns, and I think that we need to take a look at some of our progressive media and how they’re covering this important labor issue as well.

To watch video of the program, click here. The portion on SEIU begins at 13:20.

Calitics: SEIU attempting to 'weaken' UHW

Fri, 09 Jan 2009

By Julia Rosen

Today a special meeting of SEIU executive board is being called by teleconference. On the agenda is the potential creation of a statewide long-term care union, a new local. SEIU International has established them in several other states and they want to do it here in California. That is not their only motivation and probably not their biggest one. The creation of this new union would gut UHW, by removing 65k members. This appears to be the solution that the International has come up with for weakening UHW, after the charges they went after UHW with fell apart during the trusteeship hearings in the fall.

The SEIU/UHW dispute aside, a statewide local sounds like it could be a good idea, no? Consolidate everyone who have the same type of job and build a new local. It might end up being a new benefit to the workers, or it might not. It depends on if the new local is a better advocate for the workers than the one they left. They would be leaving the known for the unknown.

One would think that SEIU members should have the say over whether or not they want this to happen. Well, there was an election, technically speaking. It gave all of the SEIU health care workers in CA two different options for creating a statewide health care local. There was no option for workers to keep their current representation, staff and elected leadership. Both would end UHW as we know it, which appears to be why the International is pursuing this, despite the results of the "advisory" election.

Ballots representing 7.8% of eligible members were received, a horrible turnout. Notice I didn't say only 7.8% voted. That's because the rules were changed mid-election and members were encouraged to vote more than once. UHW actively organized against the vote, and frankly organized circles around the International.

Perhaps just as important, union members presented the Election Officer with petitions protesting the election signed by 80,000 members. These were accompanied by 40,000 formal letters of protest. UHW members presented these letters and petitions in sacks weighing hundreds of pounds. It was an astonishing outpouring of opposition, organized in less than one month.

It is fair to say that SEIU members are vehemently opposed to the creation of this new local based on the results of the election and the huge backlash against it. However, the International is calling the election "a celebration of union democracy" and using it as justification during today's board meeting. They have not received a mandate to make this change and to pretend otherwise is disingenuous at best.

For the complete article, click here.

Democracy Now!: Battle Within SEIU Comes to a Head

Thu, 08 Jan 2009

For the complete transcript, as well as audio and video of the interview, click here.

JUAN GONZALEZ: We end today’s show today with the latest on a major battle within one of the country’s largest labor unions, the Service Employees International Union. SEIU’s executive board is meeting today to decide whether to dismantle one of its largest locals, California’s 150,000-member United Healthcare Workers-West, by merging all or part of it into a new California affiliate. Critics of the proposal say SEIU president Andy Stern is trying to push ahead with the move despite overwhelming opposition from local members.

AMY GOODMAN: As part of this plan, Andy Stern would also remove Sal Rosselli, the president of United Healthcare Workers-West. Rosselli resigned from SEIU’s executive committee last year, accusing Stern of expanding his powers at members’ expense.

Sal Rosselli joins us from San Francisco. We invited representatives from SEIU to come on the show, but they said no one was available due to today’s meeting.

Sal Rosselli, welcome to Democracy Now!

SAL ROSSELLI: Thank you very much. I appreciate you having us.

AMY GOODMAN: Juan?

JUAN GONZALEZ: Sal, could you lay out for us your union’s opposition to this proposed reorganization or merging that would result in United Healthcare Workers-West either being severely truncated in size or eliminated altogether?

SAL ROSSELLI: Sure. A couple of years ago, Andy Stern decided that he wanted to control the relationship between our nursing home employers, be able to establish top-down sweetheart deals that sacrificed workers’ rights and the ability of workers to advocate for their patients. Our members stood in the way of that, decided that we weren’t going to stand for it, resisted it, and ever since then, he’s been trying to force these workers out of our union.

During 2008, in multiple different ways, our members have demonstrated in a very democratic way that they want to stay united with the hospital workers in our union. Third-party-supervised democratic secret ballot votes, over 95 percent of our members voting to stay united with hospital workers in our union, are being dismissed.

Last month, Andy Stern conducted a bogus vote, where 309,000 SEIU healthcare workers in California received a ballot with two choices: one, to force the long-term care members out of our union, where he would appoint the leaders of this new union, or two, dissolve our union altogether, merge all healthcare workers in California into one union, and he would appoint the leaders of this new union. Our leadership decided to boycott this vote, because they were both false choices. Out of 309,000 ballots mailed out, only 24,000 folks voted, and that was with huge resources to get people to vote. So only eight percent of the folks voted. Andy Stern declares that’s union democracy, the workers have spoken, they want a separate union of long-term care workers in California. And that’s the issue before his executive board today, to take that vote to create a new union and force these long-term care members out of our union.

And ironically, while this is all happening, our union has been settling contracts with these national for-profit nursing home employers that have realized the dreams of our nursing home workers for over the last fifteen years, including acute hospital standards that we’ve been fighting for: third-party resolution of staffing disputes; stronger language for workers, healthcare workers, to advocate for their patients than exist anywhere else in the country; and good wages and benefits to stabilize the work force in nursing homes. Simultaneously, Andy Stern’s trustee in southern California is settling with these same employers, compromising collective bargaining rights for the workers, compromising the workers’ ability to advocate for their patients.

Talking Union Blog: SEIU heading towards 'disastrous confrontation'

Thu, 08 Jan 2009

In an introduction to Steve Early's article, Paul Garver writes:

The co-editors of this blog consider the following piece by Steve Early an important if controversial contribution to the discussion of SEIU’s internal organizational politics. SEIU’s International Executive Board (IEB) will be making decisions with major consequences this month about whether to dismember and/or place into trusteeship SEIU’s third largest local union, United Health Care Workers-West. Early argues that such decisions would not only be an assault upon union democracy, but would likely make the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act a dead letter on Capital Hill. He questions whether the IEB has sufficient autonomy to challenge mistaken decisions by SEIU’s top leadership.

We welcome alternative views on this important issue, and would like to publish an article publicly supportive of national SEIU’s position. The position of SEIU leadership seems best stated in its press release of 12 December.

I have previously argued on this blog that SEIU is heading towards a disastrous confrontation with negative consequences for all parties if a fair negotiated settlement with UHW is not reached. However I retain a hope that SEIU’s IEB might yet decide to take the prudent course of attempting reconciliation with UHW rather than pursuing the reckless pursuit of the White Whale.

For the complete post with Early's article, click here.

SF Weekly: Will California Scandals Derail SEIU's Dream of Total World Domination?

Thu, 08 Jan 2009

By Matt Smith

The Service Employees International Union plans to spend $50 million during the coming months lobbying for a bill that would make it harder for employers to fight against unionization drives.

But critics of the union's national leader, Andy Stern, say ongoing scandals in California may stymie the union's drive to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow employees to form unions in a workplace when a preponderance of them fill out a pro-union form, rather having to contest a secret ballot election.

Such a bill has long been a Holy Grail of the labor movement because, activists say, union election campaigns often give employers an opportunity to harass, fire, and otherwise intimidate workers into rejecting union membership.

"We think Stern is going to endanger the entire progressive agenda," said John Borsos, vice president of United Healthcare Workers West, an SEIU division that represents 150,000 nurses, orderlies, and other healthcare workers. "Now is the time for the labor movement to be united around a democratic, energized labor movement. But it's got to be done in a way that's principled, that doesn't sacrifice the rights of workers, or of consumers."

Andy Stern's leadership has been challenged by a series of scandals, the latest involving his meeting with Rod Blagojevich at around the time the Illinois governor was angling to trade in his ability to appoint the state's next U.S. Senator for a lucrative, union-funded job. Last year the L.A. Times revealed that Stern's hand-picked representative in charge of a Southern California healthcare-workers' affiliate apparently improperly diverted union dues. And in the Bay Area, Stern is attempting to unseat a popular labor leader -- Rosselli -- as punishment for standing up for patients' rights.

Today the SEIU executive board meets to consider a Stern edict to dismantle Oakland-based UHW-West by merging part of it into a new California affiliate. The national union's executive board was to finish voting on the move by Friday afternoon, with no word as of Thursday on when the decision would be announced.

Borsos says Stern is rushing this move despite overwhelming opposition from local members. As it considers whether to dismantle UHW-West, Stern has also taken steps to force UHW-West President Sal Rosselli from his leadership post, alleging misuse of union dues. Rosselli calls the charges bogus, and says this latest move is merely an attempt to silence criticisms of Stern's employer-friendly organizing style. A hearing officer is scheduled to release a decision before Jan 15 on whether Rosselli will be removed from his post.

For the complete article, click here.

Counterpunch: Now is the Hour! Stand Up for UHW!

Wed, 07 Jan 2009

Defend Democracy in the Labor Movement
By Cal Winslow

"We will have to destroy UHW to save it” This, it seems, is the objective of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in its campaign against its California affiliate, United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW).

In the past year, SEIU national leaders have orchestrated a multi-fronted assault on the 150,000 member California health care workers union – all designed to break the union. The intention, it is clear, is to seize control of UHW, remove the elected leaders and relegate its members to other jurisdictions, or to altogether new organizations. This, formally, is called “trusteeship,” an action labor journalist Steve Early has described as the trade union equivalent of “martial law.” There are indeed new organizations on the drawing boards. Others, yet to be created, remain in the imaginations of the union’s central staff, but once in place, they will have this in common: all are certain to be managed directly from the SEIU national headquarters in Washington, DC.

This SEIU campaign, combining organizational, political and legal attacks, as well as formal charges against leaders and harassment of members has involved a year-long onslaught against UHW and its members. Outsiders might consider it all a sort of trade union theater of the absurd, but for UHW staff and members it has been a long nightmare, a conflict imposed with no reasonable justification whatsoever, yet one that now amounts to a life and death struggle, presenting, as well, the threat of a colossal tragedy. The destruction of UHW, it is clear, will produce disastrous consequences both in California and in the labor movement nationally. On January 8, the SEIU International Executive Committee, meeting, grotesquely, in teleconference, is expected to take steps that will ultimately dismantle UHW – a union that is a powerful force for rank-and-file working people in California, one that has emerged as, perhaps, the single strongest voice for militant action and trade union reform within the US labor movement today. Staff from SEIU – charged with commandeering UHW - are expected to arrive in California no later than the end of this week.

The complaint of the SEIU’s top officials came in a March 24, 2008 letter, charging UHW with violations of the national union’s constitution. In addition, it alleged a conspiracy to “sabotage” SEIU, with UHW somehow in league with the American Federation of Labor– Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and SEIU’s bitter rival the California Nurse Association CNA). More specifically, and the charge that has been the basis of its case for trusteeship, SEIU is said to be guilty of financial malfeasance. This, of course is strongly contested by UHW. In 2007, SEIU alleges, UHW set up an education trust fund – some $6 million to be set aside for the purpose of campaigning on health care issues. The news of this fund set off alarms in the inner chambers of SEIU. It reacted by charging UHW with essentially setting up a self defense fund, the basis, it suspected, of a possible union within the union (not a bad idea given the circumstances). UHW obligingly retreated, disbanding the fund. SEIU, nevertheless, took UHW to court, only to have a District judge dismiss all charges, finding nothing amiss and denying as without merit SEIU’s solicitations.

“Which Side are you on?” was the old miners’ slogan; it was a powerful appeal for solidarity. Which side are you on in this dispute – one Sal Rosselli calls a battle for the “soul” of the labor? It certainly is a battle for labor’s soul, but I might ask which soul? There have always been two souls in labor – very roughly, these are: one authoritarian, top-down, bureaucratic and committed to the national interest – business unionism. The other - the empowering of workers, building independent working class institutions, democratizing society and internationalism – social unionism.

There remains, of course, the possibility of compromise; there have been innumerable calls for mediation, but time is short. The fact is that few outside SEIU really want a civil war, but if war comes, there will be no quick victory here; this will be no cake-walk for SEIU. In fact, I suspect that an UHW defeat is not even an option. The members, for a start, will not allow it. The struggle, then, will continue, whatever happens this week.

To read the complete article, click here.

Contract comparison makes clear UHW's stronger track record

Wed, 07 Jan 2009

SEIU officials who are planning to remove 65,000 of UHW’s long-term care members and force them into a new local have claimed that doing so will be better for the workers. However, a side-by-side comparison of contracts won by UHW and Local 6434, which also represents workers in the California long-term care industry, shows that claim to be false. Not only has UHW won better standards for workers currently covered by these contracts, but UHW’s agreements include the right to organize new workers without management interference.

Comparison of Nursing Home CBAs: UHW vs. Local 6434

	UHW’s CBA with Mariner Healthcare	Local 6434’s CBAs with nursing home industry
QUALITY OF CARE	· Quality Care Committee with third-party dispute resolution over staffing issues	· No quality of care provisions
WAGES	· All facilities have wage scales · Over $2/hr wage increase, applied to existing wage scales · Rates in future years tied to Kaiser Permanente hospital wages · CNA start rate exceeding $16/hr · Same wage rates between the San Francisco Bay Area and traditionally lower-wage Sacramento markets	· Two-thirds of facilities have no wage scales · $1.25/hr wage increase with no requirement to apply to scales · Additional money tied to individual facilities’ Medicaid increase and ‘credited’ against future increases · Many CNAs still below $12/hr
HEALTH INSURANCE	· Employer pays 90% of employee premiums, with re-opener to discuss 100% · Employer pays portion of dependent care, also subject to re-opener for potential improvement	· Introduces substandard health insurance plan · Employer pays 75% of premium for employee only · No provision for dependent coverage
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RIGHTS	· Includes paid time for stewards each month · Guaranteed paid time off benefits: sick leave, vacation and holidays	· Template contracts remain: employers reserve right to change economic terms of employment subject to Medicaid rate performance
EMPLOYMENT SECURITY	· Successorship protection · No subcontracting · Daily cancellations protection	· No employment security provision
PENSION	· Employer contributes $.30/hr to SEIU Industry Pension Plan for all facilities	· Pension only in small number of facilities where previously negotiated
ORGANIZING	· “Code of Conduct” for organizing at all of Mariner’s California facilities	· Alliance ‘quid pro quo’ arrangement limiting contractual rights of newly organized workers

UHW members have also bargained similar agreements at Sava, Kindred, and Horizon West nursing homes. For more on those contracts, click here, here and here.

Ironically, SEIU officials are claiming that removing nursing home and homecare members from UHW and placing them into a new local will improve their situation. It seems clear that the only way for California’s nursing home and homecare workers to improve their situation is by joining UHW, not by being ripped out of UHW and shoved into a new union with no record of winning decent contracts or organizing new members.

Source: UHW contract with Mariner Healthcare; Local 6434 agreements with nursing home operators Covenant, Sunbridge, Country Villa, Golden State, Longwood, Skilled Healthcare, and SunMar.

Counterpunch: Who Rules SEIU?

Mon, 05 Jan 2009

By Steve Early

On Thursday, January 8, a group of 70 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) officials will join a conference call, set up in Washington, D.C., to decide the fate of 150,000 members of United Healthcare Workers-West, SEIU’s third-largest affiliate.

Among the actions the SEIU International Executive Board (IEB) may take is transferring 65,000 long-term care workers in California, against their will, from UHW into a new statewide entity with officers appointed by SEIU President Andy Stern. Either on this call or during a meeting Jan. 20., Stern’s board may also approve a headquarters take-over of UHW’s remaining 85,000 members. This would be accomplished via a Stern-imposed trusteeship that would replace all UHW elected leaders and further obliterate their local, one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic in SEIU.

SEIU spokesmen are downplaying the impact of either course of action.

They say it’s just an “internal matter,” a question of changing “local union jurisdiction,” after a long deliberative process, resulting in “democratic” decisions. Stern points to a recent “advisory vote” with an 86.2 percent showing in favor of his California re-organization plan. What he neglects to mention is that only 24,000 members cast valid ballots, out of 309,000 who received them—a 7 percent participation rate. More than 120,000 workers—in UHW and two other locals—actively boycotted the election, signing cards or petitions protesting it. Members pointed out that SEIU’s ballot only gave them two options, both leading to UHW dismemberment. As rank-and-filer Lola Young explained to The Sacramento Bee, “It was like asking me if I wanted to be shot in the left knee or the right knee. It’s not much of a choice.”

As widely reported in the California press, tens of thousands of hospital, nursing home, and home care workers like Young spent much of last year mobilizing to keep UHW intact and their own popular president, Sal Rosselli, in office. They made it clear, on numerous occasions, that they favored Rosselli’s approach to health care organizing and bargaining over Stern’s. In late 2008, they picked up support from prominent friends of labor and revered union figures like United Farm Workers founding mother, Dolores Huerta. In two recent public letters, nearly 300 elected officials, community activists, clergy members, academics, and trade unionists noted that Rosselli’s local had “consistently acted with the highest integrity, placing the best interests of caregivers, consumers, and communities at the center of its work.” The concerned politicians--including leading California liberals like Sheila Kuehl, Mervin Dymally, Fiona Ma, Tom Ammiano, and Dean Florez--urged Stern to “seek a peaceful resolution of your dispute with UHW rather than precipitate a crippling civil war inside SEIU.”

Despite such appeals, SEIU headquarters is still poised to launch the union equivalent of George Bush’s “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Stern’s own misbegotten invasion of California could cost millions of dues dollars (on top of the huge amounts SEIU has already spent trying to undermine UHW). It will require the deployment of many international union staffers (who numbered more than 600 at last count and presumably have better things to do elsewhere.) None of these would-be occupiers of UHW will be greeted as “liberators” by the rank-and-file, as they attempt to displace elected UHW board members, bargaining committees, stewards, and mobilizers. UHW employers will have a field day with the resulting disruption of contract negotiations and enforcement.

At a time when unions are urging Congress to pass an Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), to aid union organizing and bargaining, there will be much damaging publicity for all of labor. It will highlight the fact that most SEIU members in California no longer have the right to choose what local they’re in or who represents them. Already anti-EFCA groups have run full-page ads in major newspapers playing up SEIU’s role in foisting Gov. Rod Blagojevich on the now unappreciative citizens of Illinois. When and if Stern pulls the trigger on UHW, UnionFacts.com and similar management front groups will have a propaganda field day displaying the corpse of workers’ rights within SEIU.

For the complete article, click here.

Los Angeles Times: A Year of Triumphs and Scandals for SEIU

Wed, 31 Dec 2008

By Paul Pringle

The year might have ended on a purely triumphant note for Andy Stern, who heads the nation's fastest-growing labor union and played a key supporting role in President-elect Barack Obama's drive for the White House.

Instead, Stern has seen the Service Employees International Union jarred by a spending scandal and internecine feuding, and more recently by the favor-selling investigation that led to the arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Stern has not been implicated in any wrongdoing, and many say he has moved forcefully to address the allegations of corruption in the union's biggest California chapter and internal complaints of financial impropriety at a second Los Angeles local.

But some fault Stern for setting a poor example. The SEIU's national office has paid millions of dollars to companies, nonprofits and individuals with family ties and other personal connections to the union's leaders. One firm partly owned by an SEIU director received more than $1 million in consulting fees. The union says all the payments were proper.

Others say Stern's push to centralize control over the 2-million-member union created conditions for abuses. They say his consolidation of locals into bigger and bigger chapters has reduced SEIU democracy, and thus limited the ability of rank-and-file members to monitor and challenge officers they suspect of unethical conduct.

"When your union is less democratic than the Teamsters, you have to look in the mirror and say, 'What happened?' " said Ken Paff, national organizer for Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a reform group.

Paff said the "mega-locals" formed under Stern's administration have made it nearly impossible for dissidents to collect enough money or candidacy signatures to run against incumbents in union elections. He said the U.S. Labor Department has accused Freeman's local of making it so difficult for non-incumbents to gather signatures that its last election was a sham.

To read the entire article, click here.

NY Daily News: SEIU President Andy Stern is a threat to labor soul

Wed, 31 Dec 2008

By Juan Gonzalez

Andy Stern, head of the nation's fastest-growing union and a chief proponent of labor reform, is about to reveal himself as a colossal scam artist.

Stern, president of the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union, plans to kick off the new year with a stunning assault on democracy within his union.

At a meeting of SEIU's executive board next week, he is expected to dismantle one of its largest locals, California's 150,000-member United Healthcare Workers West, by merging all or part of it into a new California affiliate, union sources say.

By doing so, Stern plans to remove UHW's highly regarded president, Sal Rosselli, the most persistent and effective advocate of rank-and-file democracy within SEIU.

Stern is rushing to do away with the UHW and Rosselli despite overwhelming opposition from the local's members, who flooded SEIU headquarters the past few weeks with more than 125,000 letters and petitions opposing the merger.

Even Stern's supporters fear his take-no-prisoners strategy is about to spark brutal strife within organized labor, as other unions and labor-friendly politicians are forced to choose sides.

Stern is pressing forward despite several scandals that forced the resignations of a number of top SEIU leaders after reports of financial improprieties.

"Andy did nothing about all the crooks in the union," an ex-SEIU president in California said Tuesday. "But he's going after Sal Rosselli, the one guy we all know is totally honest."

To read the complete article, click here.

Video: UHW members deliver message of unity to Ray Marshall

Wed, 31 Dec 2008

In this video, UHW members speak directly to Ray Marshall, the former secretary of labor and hearing officer in Andy Stern's trusteeship proceedings against UHW. Members tell Secretary Marshall why a democratic, member-led union is key to the success of the labor movement and call on him to resist Stern's attempt to oust the elected leadership of UHW for purely political reasons.

Video: Breakthrough Nursing Home Contract Shows, Once Again, Strength of UHW Philosophy

Mon, 29 Dec 2008

UHW’s latest nursing home contract, ratified last week at 10 homes operated by Kindred Healthcare, shows once again that it is the member-led union, not top-down backroom deals, that achieve great victories for working people. This contract includes quality care committees to ensure workers have a voice in improving care at their facilities; industry-leading wages and healthcare coverage almost entirely paid for by the employer; and protections for workers to organize at 10 additional non-union facilities operated by Kindred Healthcare.

This victory is the latest contract for nursing home workers who are members of UHW, and it stands in stark contrast to contracts negotiated for Local 6434 by SEIU International officials. Those deals failed to include key standards won by UHW, such as wage scales, pensions, successorship agreements, and a code of conduct for organizing non-union workers. Additionally, UHW’s contracts have all been negotiated by union members themselves, who serve on bargaining teams after being elected directly by their co-workers.

Transcripts of Trusteeship Hearing Shed Light on SEIU's Campaign Against UHW

On November 12-15, 2008, SEIU held its final hearing on whether to impose a trusteeship on United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW). Throughout the course of the four-day hearing, members and officers of UHW and SEIU International testified about the International’s charges against UHW and SEIU’s campaign of retaliation against UHW for speaking out against the current policies and direction of the national union. The hearing officer, former Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall, gave both parties until December 15 to file a final brief and will make a recommendation to President Stern and the SEIU International Executive Board by January 15.

For a summary of the hearing, click here.

UPDATED: Excerpts of testimony now available. The hearing included a number of dramatic moments including:

Testimony from labor icon Dolores Huerta about her respect for UHW's members and leaders, and how SEIU Vice President Eliseo Medina attempted to persuade her against testifying on behalf of UHW. Click here.
SEIU Vice President Thomas DeBruin discussed the efforts by the International to attack and discredit UHW leading up to and following the SEIU International Convention in Puerto Rico, including describing staff and resources committed to the campaign and the involvement of other top SEIU officials. Click here
UHW Vice President Barbara Lewis testified about the 2007 negotiations with Tenet Healthcare and efforts by the International to exclude rank-and-file members from the bargaining table as well as sign agreements behind closed doors with no worker involvement. Click here.
SEIU Director Jim Philliou admitted to having reported concerns with vendor payments at Local 6434/434b to high ranking SEIU officials as far back as 2001 – including concerns with childcare vendors. Click here.
UHW Long Term Care Director John Vellardita testified to recent conversations with former 6434 President Tyrone Freeman in which Freeman confirmed that top SEIU officials had planned a campaign to dismantle UHW going back to 2007 through the present. Click here.

Click on the links below to open PDF files with full transcripts of each day of the hearing.

Day One - November 12

Day Two - November 13

Day Three - November 14

Day Four - November 15

UHW's written responses to Secretary of Labor Marshall prove trusteeship is not justified

Wed, 24 Dec 2008

Following national SEIU officials' latest hearing in their effort to take over our union, trusteeship hearing officer Ray Marshall left the record open for 30 days to allow both UHW and SEIU to submit written briefs. UHW's brief, and our response to SEIU's brief, show that Andy Stern's attacks on our union have no basis other than political retaliation.

Read UHW's written brief to hearing officer

Read UHW's response to SEIU's written brief

UHW's John Borsos on KPFA's Against the Grain

Wed, 24 Dec 2008

Wednesday, Dec. 17: On KPFA's Against the Grain, John Borsos of United Healthcare Workers-West talks to guest host Ramsey Kanaan about grassroots organizing, class struggle, and the conflict between UHW and parent union SEIU.

Click the play button below to listen (Against the Grain begins at 06:00) or download the interview.

David Mallon: Outcome of the SEIU Bogus Advisory Vote

Wed, 17 Dec 2008

Option A: Form a new long-term healthcare union in California (stripping UHW of its current 65,000 long term healthcare workers) - 21,008 votes

Option B: Form a new healthcare union, stripping all current health care unions of their charters with SternBurger appointing the head of that union - 3,358 votes

Total legitimate ballots counted and registered: 24,366 out of over 300,000 mailed out. That is an 8 percent return rate.

The following ballots did not figure into the total:

2,297 Voids
615 Unresolved Challenges

The final counting of ballots took place at the Radisson Hotel at LAX the evening of December 11th.

Before the vote count began, UHW members delivered to Election Officer Jeffrey Gitomer all of the protest cards, which were in excess of 40,000 cards. Members also delivered around a thousand protest cards from 6434 members who were angered by the lack of legitimate options in the bogus vote.

In addition, we delivered copies of the petitions that also protested the bogus vote as well as the illegal efforts of SEIU to put UHW into Trusteeship.

UHW therefore submitted to the election officer over 125,000 documents protesting the bogus advisory vote.

Kaiser Psychsocial Chapter & the SoCal Health Care Professionals can take special pride in the chapter's combined activism on this issue. We collected 75 percent of the signatures for the trusteeship petitions, and given a much smaller window for turnaround, we were able to acquire over 40 percent of the cards specifically targeted at protesting the bogus vote.

THE SCENE:

The documents were delivered to the election officers against the background of a rally. When we carried the hundreds of pounds of protest cards and trusteeship petitions into the hotel, we were stopped and asked not to photograph or videotape beyond a certain point. With this, we complied.

After we delivered the documents, three of us had an opportunity to speak with Jeffrey Gitomer, the SEIU appointed Election Officer. Each of us presented him with our concerns about the election. I specifically asked Mr. Gitomer what would be the next step. Would he in fact count or review the documents we had delivered? Would they be sent on to SIEU headquarters in Washington, DC? Would he be writing a letter or memo to the SEIU International Executive Board (IEB) advising them of the receipt of these documents protesting the advisory vote?

Mr. Gitomer noted he could not say anything about what might happen to the documents because he did not know. As for notifying SEIU that he was in receipt of these documents, he said he would likely write a letter informing the IEB that they had indeed been delivered. I then pressed him to send a copy of that letter to our union and he demurred, saying that he would have to confer with his lawyer before he could commit to say if he could send our union a copy of his notification to the IEB.

We then left.

Bear in mind that this is only an advisory vote that was put out by SEIU. This is also part of the reason we have considered this vote to be bogus. The IEB is vested with the power, acquired in May at the SEIU Convention in Puerto Rico, to pursue whatever course of action it chooses with regard to jurisdictional issues regardless of the advisory vote outcome.

The natural next question on anyone's mind would be: "what next?" We will have to wait and see the outcome of two critical events: 1) how the IEB will choose to spin the outcome of this bogus vote, and 2) the report by Ray Marshall, the Trusteeship Hearing Officer, and what will be his recommendations regarding trusteeship.

In addition, there are some political developments on the national level that may or may not tie up SEIU ability to act in ways we cannot yet be sure of. So, all I can say at this point is...

More news to follow.

David Mallon, Contract Specialist
Kaiser Psychsocial Chapter, Secretary