Challenging SEIU's collusion with Kaiser

[Hannah Bell]

Employer intimidation, government inaction and business unionism have prevailed for now at California health care giant Kaiser Permanente--but the battle for a fighting democratic union at the big chain of hospitals and medical facilities will continue.

That's the message of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), which had sought to oust the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as the bargaining agent for some 43,000 Kaiser workers in California. But a more than 19-month delay in the vote, collaboration between Kaiser and the SEIU, and the harassment of NUHW supporters combined to give SEIU a victory by a substantial margin--18,290 votes to 11,364.

In response, the NUWH has filed a lengthy complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), available in pdf form here. The filing charges Kaiser with a variety of violations of labor law that, if upheld by the NLRB, could result in an election rerun.

The battle for Kaiser began more than two years ago when officials and members of the SEIU's giant health care unit, called United Healthcare West (UHW), challenged the International's increasing collaboration with management. Andy Stern, then president of the SEIU, placed the UHW in trusteeship and in early 2009 forced out its leaders--who went on to form the NUHW. Soon afterward, a majority of workers at Kaiser signed petitions calling for a union election to allow them to vote to join NUWH, rather than the SEIU.

But the SEIU maneuvered at the NLRB to delay what was the biggest union election at a private employer since the 1940s. That bought time for the SEIU and Kaiser to sow fear among workers that they would lose the gains of their previously negotiated contract. The SEIU spent tens of millions of dollars--some estimates put the figure at $40 million--to flood Kaiser properties with thousands of organizers conscripted from across the SEIU.

http://socialistworker.org/2010/10/15/seiu-collusion-at-kaiser

[maryf]

1. thanks

I've been following this for a while...sigh...K&R

[blindpig]

2. k&r

[Starry Messenger]

3. k & r