[pickledpepperRN]

Vote on unionization of Catholic Healthcare nurses called off
Published on Wednesday Mar 12, 2008

A national nursing union said Wednesday that a canceled unionization vote by employees at nine hospitals in Ohio would have been a sham election and would not have given employees a fair choice in deciding on organization.

Representatives of National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association said they hadn't asked for the vote to be canceled but had urged nurses to vote 'no' on representation by the Service Employees International Union.
The vote that had been scheduled for Friday was to determine whether the SEIU would represent nurses and other workers at hospitals in Cincinnati, Lima and Springfield.

"It was a back-room deal between Catholic Healthcare and their hand-picked union, SEIU," Jill Furillo, a spokesman for the California-based union, said at a news conference outside Mercy Hospital Mt. Airy.

The nurses union said Catholic Healthcare Partners, the Cincinnati-based parent company for the nine hospitals, had called for the election with SEIU as the only union choice on the ballot.

There was no back-room deal, said officials with SEIU and Catholic Healthcare Partners and its Mercy Health Partners subsidiary that operates Mercy Hospital Mt. Airy and four other Cincinnati-area hospitals. They called the nurses union's actions underhanded, saying the group's activities opposing the vote disrupted a chance for nurses and other hospital workers to make their own choice about unionization….

http://www.ohio.com/news/ap?articleID=435526&c=y

[CHATSDALE]

no one admitted that there was a 'back room deal' ?? whaat a surprise

[snappy01]

Interesting statement made by Holubec, the spokesman for Catholic Healthcare about how the company still hoped to use the model it had worked out with SEIU. AMAZING isn't it...a company that seems pleased about a model they have worked out with a union. Do THEY really believe we are that stupid to think there wasn't some sort of back-room deal going on? How absolutely outrageous. SEIU is not the union I would want to represent me as an RN. NNOC would have my vote ANYDAY. They represent BEDSIDE RN's and only have their interests at heart certainly not the company's! I am pleased for the RN's in Catholic Healthcare chain that the SEIU vote never happened.

[critcarern3]

I am one of the nurses from the Catholic System, and I am PERSONALLY OFFENDED at the idea that we had some sort of backroom deal. We had a real shot to fix our patient care, to get better staffing and form a union, and this outside group, the California Nurse Associates shows up and ruins it. I am so angry--I am a nurse and I went to our union meetings for years--we worked, PUBLICLY, for 3 1/2 YEARS to get to our vote, and now we had to cancel it because everyone is so confused about what's happening. HOW DARE THEY DO THIS TO US!! GO BACK TO CALIFORNIA! thanks to them my patients will have the same short staffing they've always had!!

[sonnyluv]

I work at a SEIU union covered hospital here in California. They suck. We actually seem to be going backwards in terms of pay and benefits.

I think unions are good in general, because if hospital management had its way things would get REALLY bad.

Unions are businesses themselves though.

[RNadvocate]

Originally Posted by CHATSDALE

no one admitted that there was a 'back room deal' ?? whaat a surprise

"moderator" huh? No offense but you don't sound very even-handed.

It seems like the only people who didn't know about the fight for fair elections in Ohio were the hypocrits in California. It's obvious that everyone else in Ohio did.

[RNadvocate]

PS -- I say hypocrits because I don't understand why CNA call's partnerships with management "backroom deals" if SEIU does it but not when CNA does it? SEIU members use their resources to negotiate fair elections, then Calnurses are happy to co-opt them after trashing it.

CNA’s previous track record of entering into the same “backroom” deal they bash SEIU for building is legendary -- you can't buy the bull anymore can you? Catholic Healthcare West? Tenet? come on...

**Santa Ana, CA (July 6, 2006)** – A Western Medical Center nurse has filed class action unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against his employer and the California Nurses Association (CNA) union to stop an illegal scheme designed to push unwanted unionization on him and his fellow registered nurses.
Sherwood Cox filed the charges at the NLRB Region 21 office in Los Angeles, against the CNA union and Western Medical Center in Santa Ana with assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
Cox’s charges seek to protect the nurses’ right to choose freely whether or not to unionize. The charges detail how CNA union officials illegally bargained with the nurses’ employer over their wages and working conditions despite the fact that the nurses have not chosen to unionize. Included with Cox’s charges is a copy of a 26-page “neutrality agreement” negotiated by union officials with the medical center that describes how the employer will assist the union in organizing the medical center’s registered nurses, and it details specific collective bargaining concessions, including terms for wages and health benefits, that the medical center will receive in exchange.

http://www.nrtw.org/press/2006/07/nu...dom-choose-whe

[RNadvocate]

Here is actual "moderate" coverage: http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/o/...itunion_R.html

[RNadvocate]

whoops -- sorry forgot to include this... the "moderate" coverage:
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/o/...itunion_R.html

[Ludlow]

Originally Posted by RNadvocate

whoops -- sorry forgot to include this... the "moderate" coverage:
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/o/...itunion_R.html

You also forgot to note that this newspaper piece is an editorial. Someone's opinion.

The Santa Ana story started out being the SEIU colluding with Tenet (just like CHP is doing with SEIU) to unionize the hospital. We (and I was a nurse there) decided that we were not satisfied with SEIU/UNAC being our only choice. Those nurses that wanted to unionize finally decided to go with CNA.

West Med Santa Ana spent millions of dollars on union-busting and intimidating pro-CNA nurses (My bags were searched whenever I entered the hospital; nobody else with me, just me). It was not fun. But the long story short is that in the particular story you mentioned, the neutrality agreement was one that CNA inherited from SEIU after we had given SEIU the heave-ho.