The Healthcare Union War

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from In These Times:



Features > April 16, 2008 > Web Only
The Healthcare Union War
Tensions between the California Nurses Association and SEIU escalate at the Labor Notes conference
By David Moberg



As more than 1,000 labor union activists gathered in Dearborn, Mich., last weekend for the biennial conference organized by the magazine, Labor Notes, a passionate argument between competing health care unions coursed through the meeting. But by evening, the dispute turned ugly and physical. And the stakes in the dispute cranked up another notch.

On one side were nurses and leaders from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CAN/NNOC); on the other, staff and nurses with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

SEIU supporters condemned CNA/NNOC for distributing leaflets on the eve of a representation vote for roughly 8,000 hospital workers at a chain of Catholic hospital in Ohio last month. After Ohio hospital workers received the leaflets attacking SEIU and the arrangement the union struck with management for an election, SEIU called off the vote.

“What would ever possess a union, CNA, to come to Ohio and destroy something we’d worked so hard to build?” Cinncinnati nurse Susan Horn asked plaintively.

But CNA argued that the election—formally requested by management, not the union, as part of a deal to guarantee management neutrality—was so flawed that it deserved to be challenged. And if SEIU really had support from workers, CNA argues, it could have won the election despite the leaflets.

“When a union election is called by the hospital, you have to question what that means,” says Geri Jenkins, a member of the CAN/NNOC Council of Presidents. “Is it a deal to do business, or a voice for workers? Fundamentally, what we’ll lose is the right to advocate for our patients.”

The debates over neutrality agreements—and the propriety of CNA’s actions—are the kind of heartfelt discussions over labor strategy that often occur at the conventions called by Labor Notes, which often irks union leaders by supporting rank-and-file opposition groups that push for more militancy or democracy. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3624/the_healthcare_union_war/