SEIU Agrees to Gag Nursing Home Workers

Nurses Union

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SEIU Agrees to Gag Nursing Home Workers

Full story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003601276_seiu05m.html

By Ralph Thomas

Seattle Times Olympia bureau

OLYMPIA -- State lawmakers are used to seeing big budget requests from the Service Employees International Union, Washington's fastest-growing labor organization.

But few legislators realize what's really behind SEIU Local 775's push this year for a $60 million state-funding increase for nursing homes.

Under a confidential written agreement with several operators of for-profit nursing homes, Local 775 has promised to help push for more money, and in exchange, the companies have pledged to bless the union's organizing efforts.

Although the main goal of the agreement is to pursue public money, its details have been kept secret. The Seattle Times recently obtained a draft copy of the agreement.

When the SEIU attempted to organize one of my previous employers, they went after all external employees: RNs, LVNs, HHAs, CNAs, EMTs, MAs and others. The only difference was that they put the RNs into a different voting class. So there must be some way that one union can represent all levels of workers. Fortunately or unfortunately, the union lost the vote.

I'm a proud member of CNA/NNOC and I stand by our ongoing commitment to prevent any expansion of partnership deals that put the interests of the employer above the needs of patients and RNs. I'm glad that we fearlessly expose and publicize any conditions that threaten our patients and our practice--whether by doing a press conference outside of our own facilities, on the steps of the Capitol or in Ohio where RNs were being railroaded into a "partnership union". The right to speak out is fundamental to our right and obligation to advocate for our patients. SEIU routinely signs agreements that limit the rights of its members to do just that.

What a difference it makes to be in an organization made up of all RNs, run by RNs for RNs!

I am disgusted & distraught that an organization of RNs would be "all about me". :cry:

What happened with patient advocacy? By the way, where is the patient in your organization?

How can interfering with a vote in Ohio have anything positive to do with having a voice in the decision making process, having improved working conditions, retention & recruitment and the ability of the Ohio RNs to improve patient care?

All abilities & improvements that thanks to your organization's disruptive behavior are now postponed. And to top it off, your organization's "slash & burn" tactics left these employees with nothing after 3 years of hard work. What solution are you offering instead of what they almost had????

Patients in Ohio, the community from where they come and the RNs of the facilities have all been injured by your organization!!!

I thought one of the components that make us the professionals we are is the caring about others. That includes our fellow RNs. Interfering with a vote that would have allowed RNs to improve conditions is un-professional, un-caring, and down-right wrong!!!!!!:down:

Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele, Hem/Onc, BMT.

You must read the other posts on this topic. Defenfing the legal ability for employees to organize with a freedon of speech and choice was the driving force in this decision.

It is understandable that those who do not have all the facts chastize the NNOC nurses from Ohio and Californis as well as the ONA and NYSNA in exposing this election.

The issue is more or less should 10-20 workers who support SEIU dictate the representation of all?

The employer filed this election- does that sound right?

Yes, these workers had the chance to vote SEIU (hospital picked union or nothing) or no union ..

How do you know hundreds of workers were not organizing with CWA., UAW, AFSCME, or any other organization...

they had no ability to have their union of choice on the ballot because the employer filed election and the electionwas rushed..

So in the end the will of a few was the destiny of all! That is wrong!!!

Labor laws prevent the same union from representing diffeeent levels of professional and technical workers.

I beg to disagree. In the RN world, CNA/NNOC and other organizations of the ANA only represent one job classification/profession: RNs.

In the real world, where it takes a team to deliver patient care, real unions represent all levels of employees, professionals, those with certificates and those who do not need one to their job.

When employees across all job classifications choose to form a union, they gain the strength of numbers and have the ability to prevent injuries to one job classification in lieu of another.

They can prevent what happened at certain hospitals in California, where only the RNs have a contract: management laid off ancillary help and though the number of patients assigned to the RN comply with the law, now the RN has to do everyone else's job: unit secretary, CNA, etc. That breaks the spirit of the law!!!

And the CNA cannot stop that from happening because they do not represent anyone else except the RNs.

How does that help the RNs?

More important: how does that help the patient?????:crying2:

Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele, Hem/Onc, BMT.

There is a specific provision in the California law that states other staff can not be dismissed. RN's in California are calling their employer on this across the state! California RN's realize they need the support of others to maintain a safe, effective, therapeutic care environment.

I encourage all other staff to organize as well - to strengthen their position and deliver quality care.

BTW- CNA/NNOC is NOT an ANA organization...

I am disgusted & distraught that an organization of RNs would be "all about me". :cry:

What happened with patient advocacy? By the way, where is the patient in your organization?

I'm a former meber of SEIU in WI. One of the most disturbing aspects of SEIU's partnership agreements is the negative impavt they have on patient advocacy. These agreements routinely contain a gag clause.

By gag clause, I mean a clause where the union agrees that they will publically portray the specific employer as the best place to work and the best place to receive care and they will publically support the employers legislative agends, regardless of what it may be.

When you encounter unsafe conditions and the hospital refuses to fix the problem, or when the hospital is failing to hire and schedule adequate staff, you can't go outside the employer to the press or to the state, JCAHO, etc.

What this means in practice is when nurses publically advocate and speak out for patients, they have to contend with both SEIU and their employer trying to silence them. When employers retaliate against nurses for blowing the whistle, SEIU sits back--it's in their contract with the employer that they will discourage nurses from filing complaints with outside regulatory agencies!

Expecting outside regulatory agencies like Joint Commission to do our work, the work union members are supposed to do inside the facility, is transferring the power we have as such, to an outside party. My co-workers and I rely on our strength as a union to do the work, not others. All of us that work in hospitals, know that JC is a club and that the agency will only warn or re-inspect the facility no matter how severe the violation.

As RN union members, my co-workers and I have much more strength & tools than any outside agency, and we are able to hold management accountable to violations, whichever they may be. We are creative & we have the support of the entire healthcare team & the resources of the largest healthcare union in the nation.

We have also found that as a whole, the press does not tend to be union friendly, except when reporting sensational news or radical demonstrations. So, we have developed alternative and extremely effective methods to hold management accountable.

Sort of like the night shift staff, who in the absence of management (JC, press, the state, etc) have found tools & supplies (unionizing and leadership development) and created a network & infrastructure that works very well.:yeah:

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