this week, nearly 8,000 nurses and other healthcare workers in ohio saw their dreams of forming a union derailed after the california nurses association (cna) flooded the state with hostile organizers and bombarded workers with wildly false and misleading leaflets and phone calls urging them to vote against the union.
for three years the workers joined with service employees international union (seiu) members, leaders and staff to form their union. they sent letters to catholic healthcare partners (chp) officials, mobilized community support, campaigned for fair organizing rules, and signed petitions saying they wanted to unite in seiu. the effort resulted in ground rules agreed to by both the workers and chp that were designed to put the interests of workers first—not the union or employer. they called for quick elections without delays, equal access to information from both sides, and guidelines to ensure honest discourse.
because of the union-busting onslaught by cna, the ethical, fair and democratic elections scheduled for today and friday at nine (chp) hospitals in ohio have been suspended.
the following is an open letter from those os us nurses who were denied the chance to unite this week for better jobs and healthcare to rose ann demoro, executive director of the california nurses association:
march 12, 2008
dear rose ann demoro,
it’s hard for us to imagine how someone who calls herself a labor leader could purposely do what you have done to us and our families. you don’t know any of us. you have never been to our homes or met our children. you have never visited us on our shifts, or walked in our shoes. you don’t know a thing a bout the struggle that brought us to the verge of our dream to have a union. and yet without talking to a single one of us you send your bullying staff to come in and spread terrible lies for no other reason than to destroy what we worked so hard to build.
for three years we have worked with seiu members, leaders and staff to form our union. we sent letters to hospital officials and mobilized community support for fair organizing rules. seiu has supported and encouraged us through some very hard times, and helped us stand up for ourselves. we are caregivers—registered nurses and respiratory therapists, dietary and housekeeping staff, lab techs and other employees. seiu helped us understand how we could do more by speaking with one voice and standing together for our families and our patients. seiu respected our intelligence and our ability to make our own decisions.
you say you stand for democracy. but then you come in with a goal of destroying our campaign without ever asking us what we think about seiu and our agreement for fair election ground rules—ground rules we now understand you have made use of many times in california.
you say you stand for justice. but then you deny us our opportunity for a fair vote free of misleading propaganda and scare tactics.
our efforts to unite for better jobs and health care were not a secret. at any time during those three years you could have come and presented your union, compared yourself to seiu, and asked us to make a choice. but you didn’t. so it is obvious to us that your sole intention was to destroy what we have built. what kind of organization sets out to destroy the efforts of the very people you claim to stand for, and then tries to pretend it’s a moral cause?
here in ohio, union organizers and representatives don’t behave the way yours do. they show respect for hard-working people. we have read all the words about how you try to justify this, but when compared to the needs of our families and the needs of our patients, they show a complete disregard for basic fairness and decency. you have brought harm to thousands of workers and families in ohio, and you should be ashamed of what you have done.
ob-fus-cate /ˈɒbfəˌskeɪt, ɒbˈfʌskeɪt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ob-fuh-skeyt, ob-fuhs-keyt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation -verb (used with object), -cat-ed, -cat-ing. 1.to confuse, bewilder, or stupefy. 2.to make obscure or unclear: to obfuscate a problem with extraneous information. 3.to darken.
Truth and justice? Clarity? Perhaps, a mind open to the actual facts will determine what the real situation here and who's actually clouding issues and twisting facts.
I've been the recipient of the literature CNA distributes- the same 'truth and facts distributed among peers' are misinterpretations of reality and (to put it nicely) misleading.
CHP is historically non-union. The president of CNA/NNOC is not speaking truthfully when she states that SEIU is a 'company union'. I've been in negotiations with SEIU and CHP-- they were contentious and I bear witness to the FACT that SEIU protected our interests (RN interests) and represented us (an RN local) VERY well. CHP was driven by self-interest and profit--not overly concerned with patient or community service. Their 'Mission and Values' are pretty selective. Through our negotiations, they were held accountable on numerous issues that are important to nursing--including, among others, patient and nurse safety, staffing issues, pensions and health care. For example, we have retained our Defined Benefit Pension---CHP changed all of the non-RN employees' pensions to a Defined Contribution Pension last year. That was a victory for the RN's---and a hard fought issue. Hardly the work of a 'Company Union'.
CNA/NNOC, in fact, OBFUSCATED by disseminated confusing and misleading literature right before a legal union election. They urged workers to vote NO. That's union busting--and inexcusable, although that doesn't stop people from trying to excuse and justify it.
Are you aware that anyone can post anything on wikipedia!!??? It is not authoratative in any way. It is a community encylcopedia- I have actuallly written medical definitions on there myself. Try it out- or maybe you already have...
Are you aware that anyone can post anything on wikipedia!!??? It is not authoratative in any way. It is a community encylcopedia- I have actuallly written medical definitions on there myself. Try it out- or maybe you already have...
Come on....YOU were the one quoting Wikipedia.....
ironically, wikipedia lists cna as a union-busting organization:
in 2008, a new form of union-busting has emerged with the california nurses association (cna) urging hospital workers to vote no in an election involving the service employees international union in ohio. the cna conducted these activities despite having no plans to hold an election of their own. [68] these actions are new because it is not the employer who is engaging in the anti-union activity but rather another union.
I'm disappointed to see two great unions for nurses to fight over membership. They should be working together to get all nurses unionized.
There are plenty of hospitals out there that still waiting to be organized.
I waited for years for a union to come to our hospital to organize. I am very thankful SEIU came to our rescue. I never once was contacted by anyone from CNA to help nurses at our hospital.
ironically, wikipedia lists cna as a union-busting organization:
in 2008, a new form of union-busting has emerged with the california nurses association (cna) urging hospital workers to vote no in an election involving the service employees international union in ohio. the cna conducted these activities despite having no plans to hold an election of their own. [68] these actions are new because it is not the employer who is engaging in the anti-union activity but rather another union.
I'm disappointed to see two great unions for nurses to fight over membership. They should be working together to get all nurses unionized.
There are plenty of hospitals out there that still waiting to be organized.
I waited for years for a union to come to our hospital to organize. I am very thankful SEIU came to our rescue. I never once was contacted by anyone from CNA to help nurses at our hospital.
Unions need to unite and not divide workers.
This goes far deeper than just a fight over numbers of members. It is a fight over fundamentally different visons of what a union should be and particularly what a union for Registered Nurses should be. many SEIU locals have proud histories of representing their members well and of great social activism. Historically, 1199 was one of the best. Unfortunately, in the last few years, Andy Stern has turned the union away from that admirable tradition and into the "organize the boss model". The partnership model. The growth at any cost model. Saying he wants to be the HR department for American business. Saying unions need to learn to add value for the employer. Making deals that prohibit nurses from going public with patient advocacy. Siding with the hospitals in fights to establish ratio laws. Siding with the nursing home operators against patient protections. Crossing union picket lines to share stages with Arnold Schwarsanegger and the CEO of Walmart.
Etc, etc, etc. This is not the model of union RNs need today.
As to CNA not calling to organize your hospital, where is that hospital and when did you organize? CNA only took it's very first tentative steps out of California in 2004. We are well on our way to being truly national and have quadrupled in size in 15 years, but there are limits to how fast we can get it done. Any good organizers that want to work for a real union, see our website.
CNA is a craft union; they only organize nurses. At SEIU we believe workers are more powerful together. And I believe nurses in our union are proud to stand together with their coworkers.
There are less-than-honest differences too.
CNA's principle organizing strategy is to attack other worker organizations. If you look at what their organizing program has done this year, it primarily consists of attempted raids at 4 hospitals, and a VOTE NO anti-union assault on workers at 9 CHP hospitals in Ohio. I don't know of any constructive organizing efforts at all.
CNA is a craft union; they only organize nurses. At SEIU we believe workers are more powerful together. And I believe nurses in our union are proud to stand together with their coworkers.
There are less-than-honest differences too.
CNA's principle organizing strategy is to attack other worker organizations. If you look at what their organizing program has done this year, it primarily consists of attempted raids at 4 hospitals, and a VOTE NO anti-union assault on workers at 9 CHP hospitals in Ohio. I don't know of any constructive organizing efforts at all.
Then you obviously know very little. Current, active, from the ground up organizing campaigns, at least three of them with election dates set, in four California hospitals, several Texas Hospitals, one Kentucky hospital, at least a couple in Maine and probably others I don't keep up with. An enormous and ongoing national campaign working with Michael Moore, PNHP and others for single payer healthcare (which SEIU keeps trying to ally with Walmart and the insurers to undercut). Active state campaigns for staffing ratio laws in Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Ohio and Maine at least, maybe other that I don't think of. (In most of those SEIU allies itself with the hospital industry to support fake staffing laws that protect hospital "flexibility") Each of them is a genuine fight for a ratio law, but also has the additional benefit of building nurses interest in unionizing.
SEIU, by contrast has gotten most of its growth in recent years by getting state legislators to pass laws giving them control of homecare workers and childcare providers.
Andy Stern likes to talk about "innovative new approaches to organizing" but it always seems to boil down to innovative new deals with the bosses to sell out workers.
On the other point, we do believe that the role of Registered Nurses in the healthcare system is a unique one. We are the only workers in the system with a specific call in our traditions and our practice act to patient advocacy. Which is why patient advocacy is at the center of all we do and why we could never sign the kind of agreements SEIU likes that specifically ban public patient advocacy.
We do strongly support the unionization for all workers in healthcare and otherwise. We've worked closely with other unions, including SEIU in organizing other workers. I've been on SEIU picket lines with their members at my own hospital and elsewhere. But we started life as an all RN union and continue to feel we do the best work and have the clearest voice by staying that way.
Sorry--that was a simple error--not a 'twisting of facts'.
The facts will speak for themselves.
I've posted a few facts and a link to the entire pages here. NNOC/CNA members have a lot to be proud of and nurses all across the country have joined us because they want to fight for health care justice and continue a legacy that honors the rich heritage and tradition of true nursing leaders, (i.e., Lavinia Dock, Lillian Wald, and Florence Nightingale), who believed that you could not be an effective patient advocate, unless you engaged in social and political activism.
Here's the link to the Wikipedia post on CNA and a few irrefutable facts:
The California Nurses Association (CNA) is a labor union and professional association of Registered Nurses in the United States. CNA has a four-member Council of Presidents, currently including Deborah Burger, RN; Zenei Cortez, RN; Geri Jenkins, RN; and Malinda Markowitz, RN. The executive director of the CNA is long-time labor leader Rose Ann DeMoro.
The National Nurses Organizing Committee is a national professional association and labor union for Registered Nurses, sponsored by and affiliated with the CNA.
CNA/NNOC recently clashed with SEIU over an agreement between SEIU and Catholic Healthcare Partners of Ohio. CNA/NNOC labeled the election a "sham" and encouraged nurses and other staff to vote no to forming a union with SEIU. SEIU and Catholic Healthcare Partners cancelled the election for 8,000 workers in 9 Ohio hospitals on whether to have SEIU representation.
"CHP even resorted to the extreme action of going to court to obtain an injunction to block NNOC/CNA RNs from talking to the nurses about their rights and their ability to stop the hospital from imposing an unwanted union on them, while the hospitals were also blocking employees from internal discussions about the rushed vote.
(Rose Ann) DeMoro sharply criticized CHP and SEIU, along with the labor board for "determining among themselves the destiny of a workforce that is primarily women. The chauvinism and arrogance of their behavior is appalling, and has received the repudiation it so richly deserved."
"But their conspiracy of silence and the whole shoddy scheme fell apart when it was exposed to the light of day and the nurses and other employees became aware that they had alternatives to a union selected for them by their employer," said DeMoro.
"They pulled the election precisely because it was abundantly clear there was no support from the very employees for a union imposed on them by their employer and disgust with the underhanded abuse of their constitutional rights."
I've posted a few facts and a link to the entire pages here. NNOC/CNA members have a lot to be proud of and nurses all across the country have joined us because they want to fight for health care justice and continue a legacy that honors the rich heritage and tradition of true nursing leaders, (i.e., Lavinia Dock, Lillian Wald, and Florence Nightingale), who believed that you could not be an effective patient advocate, unless you engaged in social and political activism.
Here's the link to the Wikipedia post on CNA and a few irrefutable facts:
The California Nurses Association (CNA) is a labor union and professional association of Registered Nurses in the United States. CNA has a four-member Council of Presidents, currently including Deborah Burger, RN; Zenei Cortez, RN; Geri Jenkins, RN; and Malinda Markowitz, RN. The executive director of the CNA is long-time labor leader Rose Ann DeMoro.
The National Nurses Organizing Committee is a national professional association and labor union for Registered Nurses, sponsored by and affiliated with the CNA.
CNA/NNOC recently clashed with SEIU over an agreement between SEIU and Catholic Healthcare Partners of Ohio. CNA/NNOC labeled the election a "sham" and encouraged nurses and other staff to vote no to forming a union with SEIU. SEIU and Catholic Healthcare Partners cancelled the election for 8,000 workers in 9 Ohio hospitals on whether to have SEIU representation.
"CHP even resorted to the extreme action of going to court to obtain an injunction to block NNOC/CNA RNs from talking to the nurses about their rights and their ability to stop the hospital from imposing an unwanted union on them, while the hospitals were also blocking employees from internal discussions about the rushed vote.
(Rose Ann) DeMoro sharply criticized CHP and SEIU, along with the labor board for "determining among themselves the destiny of a workforce that is primarily women. The chauvinism and arrogance of their behavior is appalling, and has received the repudiation it so richly deserved."
"But their conspiracy of silence and the whole shoddy scheme fell apart when it was exposed to the light of day and the nurses and other employees became aware that they had alternatives to a union selected for them by their employer," said DeMoro.
"They pulled the election precisely because it was abundantly clear there was no support from the very employees for a union imposed on them by their employer and disgust with the underhanded abuse of their constitutional rights."
All patients derserve a high quality single standard of care.
Registered Nurses are the essential care providers to ensure that all patients receive this standard of care.
Nurses have an obligation to use their collective power to advocate for their patients' interests-- and their own.":up:
"Don't mourn, organize." Joe Hill
"My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight" Robert Frost
"The artist vocation is to send light into the human heart." George Sand
"Vocation is the spine of life." Frederick Nietsche
With the exception of the list of CNA's president's council and the definition of the organization, what you are quoting as fact is not--it's rhetoric. Rhetoric does not justify CNA/NNOC's actions in Ohio. And, your quotes serve to highlight CNA's union busting efforts--encouraging workers to vote 'no' to union representation is textbook union busting. There's no justification for it.
CNA has accomplished many things that they have every right to be proud of. Union busting in Ohio is not one of them.
There are many political machinations behind what happened in Ohio--and we are not privy to it. However, the reality of all this is that 8,000 workers were not afforded the opportunity to vote on union representation. There were no 'gag orders'. This was a legal 'free and fair' election. CNA/NNOC rightfully claims they did not call off those elections. They weren't empowered to do so--however, they were empowered to be a SPOILER. In that capacity, they could confuse the issue at a late date, usually winning 'no' votes, resulting in no union. Or, the parties involved would call off the election, resulting in no union.
Sadly, CNA/NNOC's actions have only (inadvertently or otherwise) benefited CHP. With no union, it's business as usual for them.
HobbesRN
49 Posts
ob-fus-cate
/ˈɒb
fəˌskeɪt, ɒbˈfʌs
keɪt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ob-fuh-skeyt, ob-fuhs-keyt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation -verb (used with object), -cat-ed, -cat-ing. 1.to confuse, bewilder, or stupefy. 2.to make obscure or unclear: to obfuscate a problem with extraneous information. 3.to darken.
Truth and justice? Clarity? Perhaps, a mind open to the actual facts will determine what the real situation here and who's actually clouding issues and twisting facts.
I've been the recipient of the literature CNA distributes- the same 'truth and facts distributed among peers' are misinterpretations of reality and (to put it nicely) misleading.
CHP is historically non-union. The president of CNA/NNOC is not speaking truthfully when she states that SEIU is a 'company union'. I've been in negotiations with SEIU and CHP-- they were contentious and I bear witness to the FACT that SEIU protected our interests (RN interests) and represented us (an RN local) VERY well. CHP was driven by self-interest and profit--not overly concerned with patient or community service. Their 'Mission and Values' are pretty selective. Through our negotiations, they were held accountable on numerous issues that are important to nursing--including, among others, patient and nurse safety, staffing issues, pensions and health care. For example, we have retained our Defined Benefit Pension---CHP changed all of the non-RN employees' pensions to a Defined Contribution Pension last year. That was a victory for the RN's---and a hard fought issue. Hardly the work of a 'Company Union'.
CNA/NNOC, in fact, OBFUSCATED by disseminated confusing and misleading literature right before a legal union election. They urged workers to vote NO. That's union busting--and inexcusable, although that doesn't stop people from trying to excuse and justify it.