Healthcare workers picket Labor Board after 157 days without a vote (SEIU vs NUHW)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/healthcare-workers-picket-labor-board-after-157-days-without-a-vote,887879.shtml

Posted : Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:26:47 GMT

NLRB has kept workers trapped in SEIU for more than five months by failing to schedule union elections

Oakland, Calif.—More than a hundred healthcare workers picketed the Oakland office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) today, protesting the Board's failure to schedule union elections for tens of thousands of workers who want to leave the scandal-plagued SEIU.

Nearly 100,000 workers petitioned state and federal labor boards to quit SEIU and join the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) soon after SEIU's hostile takeover of California's healthcare union in January. Federal law directs the NLRB to schedule elections within 45 days. But while California's Public Employment Relations Board began holding elections months ago, the NLRB has failed to schedule a single one.

The NLRB's neglect has allowed SEIU officials to wage a months-long campaign of intimidation against workers who support NUHW, while extracting millions more dollars in dues from workers who have plainly rejected them.

"If presidential elections were run like this, Bush would still be in office," said Beverly Griffith, a former environmental services worker at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. After months of harassment by SEIU, Griffith was fired for her support of NUHW.

FULL story at link.