The California Nurses Association - National Nurses Organizing Committee just won the first election for union representation in the state of Texas!.
There are important differences between the successful election in Texas and the election cancelled in Ohio by the employer, the union, or both.
¢ The employer filed for the Ohio election, the union filed for the Texas election.
¢ NNOC Texas submitted cards signed by over 30 percent of the RNs to trigger the Texas election.
¢ In Texas, any other union could have petitioned to appear on the ballot.
¢ Employees in Ohio were forbidden from discussing the union and the election (one of the leading SEIU supporters told the press that she did not even know the election was taking place).
¢ The NNOC Texas election provided RNs the opportunity to campaign for the union and build support for the union in the workplace, a critical step toward achieving union democracy and support.
¢ CNA/NNOC's agreements, such as the one with Tenet in Texas, specifically permit RNs to maintain their right to act in the interests of patients, not their employer.
¢ NNOC Texas went forward with the election -- despite the presence of opposition -- and won.
Source CNA/NNOC and newspaper articles linked here.
http://labornotes.org/node/1582
http://www.sunherald.com/447/story/456631.html
Page 2 http://www.sunherald.com/447/story/456631-p2.html
Ohio Nurses' Union Busted By California Nurses
There are 8,000 hospital workers in Ohio who should have joined the union last week but did not -- because of the union-busting tactics of the California Nurses Association. I used to work for SEIU District 1199 in Ohio, working for years on this very campaign to unionize nurses, and I don't even know how to start talking about this. Jane asked me a week ago for my thoughts, but it's been painfully hard to put into words.
Here's the bare bones summary of what happened, from the New York Times. But of course it is much, much more complicated than this:
The Service Employees International Union was brimming with confidence about unionizing 8,300 workers at nine Ohio hospitals through elections that were scheduled for this Wednesday and Friday. But then organizers from a rival union, the California Nurses Association, swept into town, buttonholing workers and maneuvering their way into hospital wards, to press the workers to vote not to join the S.E.I.U.
To truly grasp the tragedy that occurred when the California Nurses Association stopped Ohio nurses from organizing, it's important to understand the years of work put in by Ohio nurses to reach this moment before the vote.
The campaign started back in 1999, when a group of registered nurses in Lorain, Ohio decided to form a union with SEIU. Catholic Healthcare Partners (CHP), their employer and the largest hospital system in Ohio, fought the organizing drive fiercely. In the final days before the vote, management even brought in nuns to pass out cookies and tell the nurses that "God doesn't want you to have the union."
The nurses won their secret-ballot election, monitored by the National Labor Relations Board, with just 51% of the vote. But even after winning official union recognition, they had to negotiate a contract. The nurses had to strike two times before they won their first contract with the hospital.
When other workers at the same hospital -- and nurses at other CHP facilities around Ohio -- also tried to organize, they faced the same ferocious fight. It became clear that in order to win substantial gains, more CHP workers needed to act -- together -- to take on their employer. So in May 2004, hundreds of CHP workers from around the state met in Cincinnati and launched a campaign to try to organize not shop by shop, but against the whole health system at once.
CHP management fought these workers fiercely. I remember seeing the impact of the boss fight while working turf on two hospitals in Cincinnati. Sleepy workers at the end of the night shift were forced to watch anti-union propaganda videos. Supervisors dragged workers into their offices for one-on-ones. Slowly, union supporters started getting discouraged or flipping altogether. I would show up for scheduled appointments with union supporters, and suddenly they would be "not home," or screaming at me to get off the lawn and letting their dogs loose.
So for those rank-and-file activists who stuck it out, it was a huge victory when they won a neutrality agreement from CHP for free and fair union elections -- a vote free of interference, harassment or intimidation from their supervisors.
Eight thousand workers, about to join the union--and then outsiders from a rival union, the California Nurses Association (CNA), started leafleting and harassing workers in the week before their vote, telling them to vote "no," creating such mass confusion and hysteria that SEIU was finally forced to cancel the elections altogether.
"They ran a union-busting operation," said Dave Regan, SEIU District 1199 chief. "What is unbelievable is that it was done by an organization that purports to be a union."
I can't explain why the California Nurses Association did what they did. There's a long history of bad blood between the two unions, rooted in ideological differences over whether nurses should all be in their own union (says the CNA) or whether nurses should be part of the biggest healthcare union in the country (says SEIU).
But regardless of ideology, what is unbelievable is that any union would bust another one. What is particularly unbelievable is the fact that the CNA tried to paint the neutrality agreement between the hospital and the workers -- an agreement the workers spent years fighting for -- as some sort of "sweetheart deal":
Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the nurses association, condemned this agreement. She called it "a rigged scam" in which the service employees union would bargain only half-heartedly if it won the vote.
"This was a top-down deal between an employer and a hand-picked union," Ms. DeMoro said. There was a gag order on everyone, and as a result this was a banana republic election."
In Cincinnati, where 4,200 workers from five hospitals were scheduled to vote, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the canceled vote was even described by the CNA as "a significant victory."
Outraged? SEIU is responding with a petition to the CNA that "Silencing Nurses Voices Is Not a Victory." You can sign it here. And you can see Ohio nurses respond to the California Nurses Association here.
By the way, no new election date has been set.
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Congratulations on your win.
In response:
1. In Ohio, SEIU demanded, after years of organizing work, that CHP recognize them as the bargaining representative for all eligible employees. Historically, CHP is anti-union and, rather than acquiesce to that demand, they petitioned the NLRB for an election. The union doesn't always request the election.
2. In Ohio, after years of campaigning, SEIU had support among eligible employees to go forward with that election. Signing cards is not the only way to get an election.
3. If CNA/NNOC had done the legwork, they could have been on the ballot. Tthey knew they didn't have employee support, so their needs were best served by disrupting the election process.
4.CHP employees were given two toll-free numbers--one each for management and the union--to address their questions. They could discuss the issues but not in patient care areas--which is standard and appropriate. Decorum did not prevent CNA/NNOC organizers from entering CHP hospitals and contacting employees in restricted areas.
5. In Ohio, CNA/NNOC disrupted the process for a free and fair democratic election. CNA/NNOC's activities actually benefited CHP, since there still isn't a union.
6. Our SEIU-crafted contract contains language delineating actions nurses can take to improve working conditions, staffing, patient safety and other nursing concerns. That's not exclusive to CNA.
7. SEIU will continue work to organize ALL eligible CHP employees and will prevail --despite the outrageous interference of CNA/NNOC. We're stronger together.
If SEIU wishes to talk about "union busting," perhaps they could start by explaining what they are doing in Puerto Rico where they are colluding with the anti-union government to destroy a progressive teachers union that has been challenging a no strike law and poor working conditions.
As one labor leader told the New York Daily News about a meeting involving the governor and SEIU's Dennis Rivera: "The governor told Dennis, 'It's essentially yours to take,'" said one source who claims he was at a meeting in late December between top island union leaders, the governor and Rivera.
Read the New York Daily News article at:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/02/29/2008-02-29_new_york_labor_leader_dennis_rivera_in_s.html
Maybe while they're at it, they could also explain why they are in league with Pfizer advertising Lipitor.
Read about it at:
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/80411/
C Idelson, California Nurses
This reminds me of Clinton vs. Obama: turf battles so fierce that everyone loses in the end.
Just sayin'...
The facts are incredibly simple.
The California Nurses Association represents ZERO Ohio workers. They had ZERO to do with the contentious three-year organizing drive ... until the week of the election.
That week, the CNA ran an all-out VOTE NO campaign to keep 8,000 workers from joining the union. When workers said they were not RNs, CNA organizers said, "we're also asking you to VOTE NO."
I was present to hear and witness what the CNA did to workers in Ohio. They called workers at home and at their stations, leafleted the hospitals, sent out glossy anti-union mailings full of divisive lies, even snuck into the hospitals dressed as pizza delivery people. In their literature they demeaned and insulted non-RN staff, and the idea that RNs should unite together with other hospital staff. The CNA may not like it, but RNs in our union have always stood together with other hospital employees.
The California Nurses Association betrayed and insulted Ohio workers and trade union values. Their shame is a disgrace to the movement, and their despicable behavior is an impediment to building workers' organizations, to change this country.
I would put out a plea, that rank-and-file CNA members - real union women and men - stand up to that unelected hypocrite, Rose Ann DeMoro, and her gang. Do what it takes. Please, don't let them spend another dime of your union dues to destroy hope in Ohio.
IN SOLIDARITY
1199, it was SEIU who betrayed and insulted Ohio workers and trade union values, disallowing them the chance to vote their convictions. SEIU, colluding with the hospital corporation, CHP, stopped the election.
And SEIU did that because they knew they would be soundly defeated. SEIU didn't have the support among the Ohio health care workers needed to win the right to represent those workers. All this smoke screen about somebody else coming in and spoiling your deal is just to distract everyone from the truth that SEIU is not the choice of the Ohio health care workers.
There's a reason nurses do not like SEIU: because they do not protect our professional practice.
You're not a nurse, so let me tell you, this profession comes with a complete ethical and professional code. Let me boil it down: RNs must always act "in the exclusive interest of their patients." Period.
When SEIU makes deals with hospital chains, they slap gag orders on their own members so they can't report unsafe patient care conditions. That's a travesty, and something no RN can allow.
Oh--but I AM an RN, employed by CHP, and represented by SEIU-- and I do like SEIU!!
SEIU has not acted unethically in their dealings with CHP from my personal and knowledgeable perspective. They have been most honorable in our dealings with CHP--even in the face of the outrageous anti-union behaviors of CHP.
I have NEVER been 'gagged' when it comes to patient safety! What an outrageous comment! We are, at present, diligently working on safe staffing ratios--we have an open forum to discuss issues and unsafe staffing---without the fear of repercussion.
Sadly, CNA/NNOC has not exhibited ethical behaviors at all in this debacle. In their self-serving onslaught on the CHP employees in Ohio, they were not acting in 'the exclusive interest of their patients.' Their patients are in California. On the contrary, their behavior in Ohio was deplorable. In fact, because of their 'union-busting' antics, they have inadvertently acted as agents of CHP. With no union, it's just business as usual for them!
CNA is the only union in the country to have obtained safe staffing legislation with MANDATED STAFFING LEVELS! This, by itself, is enough to give them huge credibility if they say the Ohio nurses were being sold out by SEIU. They are rabid about protecting our practice, and protecting patients. That's what it takes in this current "right to work for less" environment. It's too bad it went down like this, but it may be for the best.
We need every union in our nation to be a strong as possible right now.
Never has there been such an all out assault on workers rights. Never has the gap between rich oligarchs and the working people been so wide.
I hate to see two unions fighting each other. There is not enough information in this post for me to get a clear picture of what is really happening here. But this story did get me interested, and I found this.
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/80411/
Brutal. So many organizations at first glance seem like the good guys, and on further inspection not so much.
This is a messy fight. The individual nurses are not being well served by this, nor are the patients and recipients of their care.
Ok - I think I get the gist of it from reading the article followed up with the letters. SEIU, utimately, in the view of the CNA, crafted a deal for the Ohio nurses that would have them working with one hand tied behind their backs, so to speak. CNA believed that Ohio nurses could do a lot better for themselves and their patients. But that the Ohio nurses, new to the game, did not understand what they were getting into. Plus, everytime a group of nurses gets snuckered into a deal like this, not only do they and their patients, get locked into a situation that gives them much less than they deserve, but it puts pressure on other unions, who may have crafted better deals, to give up some of their gains. However, the Ohio nurses,who were really hurting and who worked their butts off to get this far, are just devestated, and reject this level of interference - they need changes now. Am I getting this?
I am one of those Lorain RN's and can vouch for the veracity of Stephanie's post. During our campaign, CHP was found guilty of almost 100 ULP's, which served as little deterrent to their agenda.
We've known for years that we needed to work to get ALL of CHP workers united and have worked to that end--legitimately within the structure of the law.
I've read the rhetoric from CNA/NNOC and don't find their self-righteous justifications valid. CHP wouldn't be united under them---they only organize RN's. They derailed the elections for 8000 workers-less than half of them the targeted RN's. They used the misleading propaganda to infuse the workers with doubt--much the same as CHP did to 'union-bust' in those early days in Lorain.
The end does not justify the means.
I know you must be really hurt right now but if you check into the history of the service workers union you may get over it faster. The one thing hospitalworkers don't need is to organize under the company which is what you were headed for.
While the California Nurses Assoc. only directly represents RNs, they can and will help organize the rest of the people under a good local trade union. If you want a union that will fight for patient care the CNA/NNOC is the only choice right now.
So! lick your wounds and find out what the difference is in unions(they are huge) and reorganize your already organized coworkers. When all is said and done you'll see the CNA is actually the calvary, in the war for patient care and doable working conditions.
Never give up on the good fights!
It should be reiterated:
Ohio hospital workers announced their intention to form a union nearly FOUR YEARS ago. CNA airlifted organizers into Ohio ONE WEEK before the election.
If this was about presenting Ohio hospital workers with another option, why didn't CNA start talking to them at any point in the last four years? Or petition to get on the ballot?
Because this was never about providing workers with another choice. This was about sabotaging a union election the CNA had no interest in, except to use those workers as pawns to settle some political beef they have with SEIU back in California.
This is why when CNA organizers talked to hospital workers, they didn't tell them to vote for CNA. They told them to vote "no union." This is an organization that would rather see workers who have some of the toughest jobs in the country have no union at all that be unionized with a rival. And then have the gall to accuse SEIU of playing politics. CNA stopped caring about what was good for workers a long time ago.
How patronizing. Are you a nurse who just had four years of organizing destroyed by people who just ran around whispering "psst, you don't really want to be in a union representing janitors, do you?"
I'm guessing not.
No! I am a Respiratory Therapist with 25 years of experience! Yes! I was very involved in organizing efforts 10 years ago in my community and we lost to the nuns (a catholic hospital) by 23 votes...I know what defeated is!
And frankly I do understand why RNs are concerned about being in the same union as the janitors. While I believe we are strongest when we stand together, those who have so much tied up in education and licensing need more reassurance their professionial status is guaranteed.
What I am trying to say is don't give up! Look into what the CNA is saying and let the nurses decide which union they want. Everyone else can do likewise! If you still want the SIEU and can win the election without the nurses ..go for it! The battlefield may have changed but you haven't lost the war unless you give up! You won't do that, will you?
I'm guessing not. Good Luck!
I beg to differ--and I'm one of few RN's who possess my perspective on this whole debacle.
I've been well represented by SEIU 1199 for over 8 years. This is the same local that has worked to organize all CHP workers. My personal experience is far different from your speculation. In SEIU, we are not organized under the company! That's a comment that screams of misinformation.
SEIU 1199 has long fought for patient and workers' rights - even before I've been associated with them. I've found their philosophy to be close to my own--and I'm happy to be represented by them.
My experience is real. It's not from reading blogs and CNA/NNOC rhetoric-which I've found to be long on verbage and short on actual accomplishments. That is not to say they haven't accomplished good things in California. However, union busting in Ohio is not an admirable accomplishment.
CNA/NNOC's actions in Ohio were self-motivated and unethical. They do not represent a single RN bargaining unit within the state. They usurped a campaign that had been years in the making for their own personal agenda. Their tactics and methods were straight from a 'union-busting' manual and are inexcusable.
We don't need to 'lick our wounds'--we need to regroup and get this work done. Our goal is to be united CHP employees--and CNA/NNOC cannot accomplish that goal. SEIU can and has worked to effect that positive change.
Sorry! My personal experiences differ and alot has to do with what you are fighting for...life is conplicated! I am thrilled you our getting everything you want out of organizing with the service workers. Who cares which union you join as long as your hard fought gains are ensured and maintained.
At the time we attempted to organize the service worker would not consider representing the low wage earners so we went with the Steelworkers. Since we would have been the first healthcare local, the steelworker contacted the CNA who sent us tons of information to help us. At that time they were just the California Nurses and they were busy working for what I know is essential to good healthcare...legislation that guarentees ratios!
Good Luck!
I'm kinda dumb about this, but could someone tell me what California has to do with Ohio?
Thats just the name of the Ca Nurses union , they started there but have chapters in many states.
Between the unions and big business you have to wonder who is looking out for consumers.
This has nothing to do with better or cheaper health care.
You better believe the number of nurses staffed on the floor has everything to do with better health care! It can mean a difference in life or death.It can mean you end up staying longer with an infection or leave with a bedsore. It can mean you get a pain pill when you need it or a Dr called in the middle of the night. In the long run it means cheaper health care because well cared for patients won't need to file malpractice suits against hospitals.
Backed up by good grassroots involvement unionizing the folks on the frontlines will do much to protect the consumers. The people who actually do healthcare, the nurses and aids, the therapist, techs, housekeepers, clerks, etc. etc. have to be given a voice if you want better AND cheaper healthcare.
Let's all be thankful our banks aren't run like healthcare!
Ca Nurses Assoc. represents professional patient advocacy .This is one of the first things they try to get on the law books when they organize, as well as whistelblower laws to protect nurses who are fired or threatened for speaking out about hospital conditions that are unsafe.
Nurses are uniquely qualified to know what care patients should be getting, in a way that other hospital personel are not. It is not about the money , it is about insuring that patients are able to get the best and safest care and that nurses are able to provide it by having sufficient nurses to do so.
SEIU does not even begin to address these issues.
In addition, CNA is a craft union for RNs only that does not deign to represent hospital janitors, or even LPNs. Thus they can brag about the raises they win for a uniquely privileged nurses they represent while screwing the lower paid health care workers they do not, in states where they have no active membership, out of a union.
SEIU does address these issues. I am an RN member of SEIU and know for a fact that social, healthcare issues, nursing issues and the plight of the un- and underinsured are on their agenda.
Why does SEIU oppose safe RN-to-patient ratios?
That's a ridiculous question!
SEIU and RN staff nurses are presently working on safe staffing ratios at our CHP hospital. We have contract language that specifically addresses staffing and we have to tools to positively impact staffing ratios.
In addition, CNA promoted Universal healthcare as part of their patient advocacy way before any candidate even mentioned it.
We ALL want universal healthcare---that's a 'no-brainer'
SEIU supports illegal immigration and an expansion of the nanny state. I'm glad you guys lost.
California Nurses Association -- the Hillary Clinton of the labor movement.
CNA does not support Hillary.
CNA feels the other Union does not advocate for their workers rights, or other issues such as nurse/patient ratios.
That is incorrect, The CNA supported Hillary in the Nevada Primary (along with the casino executives who are all Republicans) where the SEIU and Culinary Workers Union supported Obama. Look it up.
I checked the Web site...they haven't endorsed anyone yet.
I wasn't saying they did. I was trying to make the point that CNA's union-busting tactics are the labor equivalent of Hillary's scorched earth, Tonya Harding-esque tactics that are helping McCain.
I have been on both sides of the union discussion. I was once a member of a large union and then a business owner who opposed a union. It seems to me that your claim of harassment by the hospital workers having one on one time is crazy. You certainly don't call yourself a person who harrasses workers by trying to organize them. By your own admission the first vote was just barely won. That means there is a substantial amount that didn't agree with you. Certainly workers need protection, but you have fallen into the blame game. If you can't win that means the other guy was unfair. You need to go back to the drawing board and hone your message until it truely reflects what the workers want.
Posted March 25, 2008 | 10:48 PM (EST)