Union Election Cancelled As CNA Says SEIU Excluded Nurses In Ohio Deal - 03/12/08
11th March 2008
(+5 rating, 3 votes)
Loading ...By Doug Cunningham
In Ohio Catholic Healthcare Partners has cancelled an SEIU union election in what had been a top-down deal between SEIU and the hospital chain. Jill Furillo of the California Nurses Association says her union has been working directly with the 8.000 nurses at Catholic Healthcare Partners but the nurses had not been working with SEIU to get a union.
[Furillo]: “There was not one nurse that had any knowledge of this deal that SEIU was working with Catholic Healthcare Partners. SEIU believes in these labor-management partnerships - that somehow or other you can be best friends with corporate bosses and somehow that;s going to help workers.
March 12th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Let’s be clear – the California Nurses Association does not represent a single worker in Ohio.
SEIU spent the last three years working with nurses and other hospital staff, helping them form their union. The workers wrote letters to hospital administrators, signed petitions, knocked on doors and busted their asses to win the chance to have an election. CNA came in 6 days before the NRLB-supported secret ballot election, and tore it apart with dirty, underhanded tactics.
Showing up a week before the elections did not entitle CNA to be on the ballot. They would have needed just one card to appear on the ballot but failed to produce one. They chose instead to mislead nurses into thinking that a “no” vote would automatically result in a “yes” vote for the CNA.
CNA is lying. Talk to the actual nurses in Ohio.
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March 13th, 2008 at 1:51 am
Its ironic to see CNA steal a page from the Wal-Mart union-busting hand book and then claim to protect union democracy. In fact CNA’s campaign to disrupt this organizing drive is more about CNA competing at all costs with SEIU for members. Basically, CNA would rather have these workers not join any union, and in many cases continue to work in poverty with out health insurance, than join a union other than CNA.
The idea that this campaign was a backroom deal is inaccurate. Thousands of workers in these hospitals were involved in SEIU’s attempt to organize these hospitals and overcome. They wrote letters to management, leafletted outside of the hospitals and in their community, and attending rallies in support of unionization. These workers were part of a larger community coalition that involved civil rights, religous, and progressive political leaders.
Management initially resisted SEIU’s organizing efforts, firing leaders of the campaign, hiring anti-union consultants, etc before eventually agreeing to holding an election without intimidating pro-union employees.
Its a shame that CNA would seek to undermine progressive movements such as this.
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March 13th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
CNA is moving an union busting campaign against SEIU… again.
As SEIU staff, I was an on-the-ground organizer when they pulled the same stunt in California in 2003. CNA sits back and watches while hospital workers build enough power to win free and fair elections against some of the toughest and militantly anti-union employers in the country. Then, just as an election approaches, CNA intervenes, accuses SEIU of “back room” claptrap, and delays the election until they get their way.
Instead of spending members resources on a real organizing plan, they just follow real unions and try to capitalize on their work. Its disgraceful, unethical, and is benefiting only one group: bosses.
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