DISQUS

ttagaris · 10 months ago

Thanks for posting this, John.

Tim

Older_Wiser · 10 months ago

You mean the dictatorial head of Serving Employers Instead of Us and his sweetheart deals? Stern doesn't allow dissension within the ranks, strikes, good faith bargaining, etc. Workers have no real power--he has it all.

He's just a tool of the employers, IMHO.

pet valet · 10 months ago

too late to ask for segment ... but just wondering
what's with the top-down approach, not very progressive:
why pick on CA health workers in a divide and conquer scenario? and why un-negotiate gains made by CA bargaining? and when CA health care workers vote not to be divided, stern's main office is training replacements for take over of CA union leadership. not very solidarity-ey, imo.
or did stern et al cut a deal with arnold and ca care facilities? in anticipation of pending CA and/or national chg's?

K A · 9 months ago

Where is the free choice of workers to leave SEIU in California? Why won't Andy let workers choose which union to belong to? here is the latest e-mail circulating about the situation:

Trusteed Workers In California Form Independent Union

As former UHW staff members, we're writing to update you about the trusteeship of UHW as well as healthcare workers' recent founding of a new union here in California.

First, a quick update: On January 27, President Andy Stern imposed a trusteeship on UHW, thereby removing UHW's 100-member Executive Board, suspending its constitution, removing its officers, and appointing out-of-town trustees to run the union. An article from the Daily Labor Report offers more details and is especially interesting because it includes observations from labor analysts like Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell University and Nelson Lichtenstein of the University of California Santa Barbara. Their comments underscore what's been widely understood about the effort to seize control of UHW - that there are no legitimate grounds for trusteeing UHW and that the trusteeship is simply a move by Stern to eliminate his political opponents inside SEIU. In the article, Bronfenbrenner points to the profound contradictions in Stern's stated rationale for the trusteeship. A second observer calls Stern's action "the height of absurdity." A third calls the former UHW "a model union in many ways... a big, vibrant democratic local which has a policy disagreement with the international."

On January 28, the day after the trusteeship, UHW's 100-member Executive Board voted unanimously to form a new union independent of SEIU - the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). Since then, tens of thousands of workers have flocked to the new union in an unprecedented exodus from SEIU. In just the first week after NUHW's founding, a majority of the workers from more than 100 hospitals and nursing homes signed NLRB certification petitions requesting to leave SEIU so they can join NUHW. These petitions, which were filed with the NLRB, cover more than 25,000 workers and are the largest such filing in California's history. Since then, petitions covering approximately 5,000 more workers have been filed. Workers accomplished this feat without the help of a single paid staff person. Currently, NUHW is an entirely volunteer organization that relies on thousands of dedicated rank-and-file leaders as well as more than 120 former UHW staff who quit their jobs and are volunteering to help build a democratic, member-led union.

The mass exodus of workers from SEIU is a totally predictable response to Stern's actions. For months, UHW members pleaded with Stern to let them continue to govern their own union. More than 125,000 UHW members signed petitions telling Stern not to trustee their local. More than 8,000 protested at SEIU's trusteeship hearings. Staffers assigned to the trusteeship team are now facing the predictable anger of UHW's members. Members are refusing to let out-of-town organizers set foot in their facilities. International officials have had to hire off-duty cops to guard the offices that they forcibly seized from UHW members. SEIU officials hide behind office doors chained shut with heavy locks and guarded by gun-toting officers. For more reports about what's happening inside the trusteeship, go to http://perezstern.blogspot.com (Today's post includes a report from an SEIU staff person assigned to the trusteeship who quit her job.)

Meanwhile, SEIU officials have launched an aggressive campaign to stop workers from leaving SEIU. These SEIU leaders are working with some of California's worst anti-union employers to threaten, suspend and even fire rank-and-file workers who circulate petitions to join NUHW. In the words of one UHW steward: "This is like a very bad marriage. We filed for a divorce. SEIU is like an abusive husband who's trying to stop us from going." Meanwhile, each day UHW members are filing more and more certification petitions and are insisting that SEIU officials respect their decision.

For more information, please go to www.nuhw.org.