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.
i checked out the nnoc page, the seiu page, and the seiu ohio page, and i think seiu has the moral authority here. here are what i consider to be the key points in seiu's favor:
1) chp workers chose seiu and had been working with them for years. lots of evidence on this, including a youtube video with chp employees that's pretty powerful.
2) lots of evidence that, contrary to cna's assertions, seiu is a strong union in ohio. (by the way, i don't think cna has any union nurses in ohio...) check out the local website: www.seiu1199.org. i'm pretty sure they're politically powerful too. they helped an rn leader of their union to the ohio state senate. http://thewomblog.com/?p=52;http://www.senate.state.oh.us/senators/bios/sd_13.html.
3) all cna has to say is negative. nothing positive, just nasty smears against seiu and disrespect for the chp nurses who have been involved with seiu.
Hey there-lets have a reality check and put this into a larger perspective-
Under its current leadership (Andy Stern), SEIU has repeatedly signed deals with employers that compromise RN (and other employyees) standards, scope of practice, and endanger patients in exchange for getting more and more new members. It's purely a numbers gain for SEIU.
SEIU has signed off on hosital closures, lobbied for hospitals against reforms to crack down on unsafe conditions and supports proposals to erode nursing practice.
SEIU JOINED CA.'S HOSITAL INDUSTRY IN LOBBYING AGAINST NNOC/ CNA's HISTORIC RN-TO-PATIENT RATIOS. T
hey continue to sponsor and lobby for weakended fake staffing bills in states all throughout the country while NNOC has introduced and is fighting for real ratio laws in Ohio, Ilinois, Texas, Arizona and Maine,
Hey colleagues-the proof is in the pudding. Ca.'s ratios ( authored, lobbyed, and defended all by CNA alone) have proved to be tremendously successful-since the law was signed there are 86,000 more active license RNs in the state...many of them travelers who have worked in CNA hospitals and decide to take residence in an enviroment where they can provide quality care as well as retire with dignity.
Questions anyone?
Cna has the California staffing ratio's in place which contrary to Cna SEIU was as is not more active in achievieng than CNA. WEe were larger and more powerful than CNA was. I callenge you to show me any CNA negotiated contract that includes staffing ratios i believe there are none while SEIU has negotiated multiple contracts with staffing ratios included in the contract. For the real story on the California staffing ratios i refer you http//supportohiocaregivers.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/californiaratios-the-real-story/
The nature of the election - rushed and petioned by the employer prevented ANY other union from being on the ballot.
Agreements that either undermine the rights of patients (ala SEIU lobbying for tort reform) or workers (ala an election that is rushed and does not allow freedom of discussion or true choice) is not an agreement that is healthy for America.
Please take the time to objectively read the Q&A document NNOC has published :
Consider the recent history of SEIU across the country and maybe you will see why NNOC is opposed to these tactics.
This new strategy eliminates the previous fundamental of unionization which is a strong base of support for the union in the hospital. This organizational base was not present in the CHP elections. A hallmark of "top-down" unionizing. A hallmark of a company union.
How can this election have been rushed? Seiu has worked this campaign for over 3 years. Anyone whodid not know this has been going on is uniformed. All CNA had to dowas produce a single card to participate in the election.
The nature of the election - rushed and petioned by the employer prevented ANY other union from being on the ballot.
Agreements that either undermine the rights of patients (ala SEIU lobbying for tort reform) or workers (ala an election that is rushed and does not allow freedom of discussion or true choice) is not an agreement that is healthy for America.
Please take the time to objectively read the Q&A document NNOC has published :
Consider the recent history of SEIU across the country and maybe you will see why NNOC is opposed to these tactics.
This new strategy eliminates the previous fundamental of unionization which is a strong base of support for the union in the hospital. This organizational base was not present in the CHP elections. A hallmark of "top-down" unionizing. A hallmark of a company union.
Your post is not accurate. CNA could have presented a single card and been included in the election. They did not because they have no intention of organizing CHP they were just union bustig SEIU
And I say again: if there was real support, the fact that a handful of people showed up and passed out some flyers - despite physical intimidation by SEIU with management support - would have made no difference. Any deal that won't stand the light of day is not a good deal.
Think of things that hide in the dark and scurry away when light is shined upon them: rats, cockroaches, worms, critters like that. What was it about having quesitons asked and opposition expressed that made the election impossible? And how was CNA's intervention in this worse than SEIU's intervention in Reno? In Reno, SEIU's attempted intervention made no difference in the outcome, since CNA had real support and won a resounding victory.
So, it's OK to union-bust because you only had a handful of 'people' passing out flyers?? That's a great justification!
Timing is everything--CNA could have been on the ballot had they produced ONE RN-SIGNED card. But, they failed to do that. They do not represent ONE NURSE in Ohio. They didn't disseminate their information when this highly publicized campaign for collective bargaining was being waged by SEIU to help secure the future of CHP employees. They waited until their actions would be most disruptive. CNA slithered in under the radar (sort of like cockroach and rat scenario described in the above post) right before the election to confuse and intimidate the nurses employed by CHP. The fact that they don't care to represent the other 5000 employees of CHP and that those employees lost this opportunity to organize is just 'collateral damage'? Those workers are irrelevant to their agenda. CNA's behavior is ABSOLUTELY indefensible and outrageous. Not the 'professional' behavior one would hope to expect from a 'professional' organization.
CHECK IT OUT This is a 20 page booklet on mandate RN-to-patient ratios authored by CNA/NNOC :"The Ratio Solution-CNA/NNOC's RN-to-Patient ratios work-Better care , more Nurses"
There is a reason this book was written--RNs all over the country want madated ratios like California, which has proven to improve care and bring RNs back to work in hospitals with improved staffing.
CNA RNs authored and defended AB 394...it took 13 years. We paved the way for other states and now there are Patient Protections Acts that are modeled on California in Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Arizona, and Maine.
Sadly it is fact that SEIU did try and derail this bill at the eleventh hour. Fortunately they were unsuccessful, but are now doing the same dance in many of the states where CNA/NNOC is currently working to win support for mandated ratios, not:
--voluntary ratios with no public disclosure,
--no rights for RN as patient advocate,
--LVN/LPN interchangeability
--staffing based soley on patient classification sysyems without ratios as a minimujm standard.
AND AS FOR RATIOS IN CONTRACT[/bMost of CNA/NNOC's 150 California contracts have won binding arbitration as a mechanism to resolve staffing disputes as well as having the actual ratios in the contract to give them extra protection from any uncertainty in the legislative arena in the future (as we witnessed with our Governor who tried unsuccessfully to weaken them a couple of years ago).
There are several ways to get the NLRB to hold an election. One is to have employees sign cards requesting a union to represent them. Or, the employer could agree to allow elections to be held. In this case, SEIU campaigned for YEARS to get employees of Catholic Healthcare Partners the opportunity to vote for or against union representation. CHP finally agreed to the elections after all the research and campaigning SEIU had done. It was an option discussed when we organized over a decade ago--and we thought it was anything but a viable option after our experience with CHP. But, actually, all the work we did for our union was an element of the path to this agreement between SEIU and CHP.
I wonder how the current CNA strategic organizing plan was approved by the rank & file members in CA & Chicago.
How was the Executive Director of the CNA able to get the Board to vote yes on such a destructive and expensive plan?
What bedside union RN would vote to approve spending dues in a "raiding in the name of education" plan that leads to no growth, no increased membership and a lot of resources spent outside the state?
Resources that could have been spent productively in organizing not-yet-unionized RNs: over 1 million in acute health care facilities in the country currently.
Resources that would have served the community, the RNs, & the patients a whole lot better if they would have been utilized in organizing the rest of the RNs in hospitals in CA. A state that last time I checked is not 100% unionized in the RN world (since that is all CNA does)!!!
Makes me wonder what ulterior motives propted this so called "saving the CHP employees" raid and anti-union, union-busting move of the CNA.
Preventing anybody from doing anything because the CNA does not have the infrastructure to organize, develop & hold the employees through an organizing, voting & contract campaign is destructive & extremely self-serving.
THAT is a letter to the editor by a member of CNA--totally biased and filled with misinformation!!
HobbesRN,
Are we to assume that everything that you have posted to date is NOT "totally biased"? Give me a break! Just because you don't agree with information that comes from a different point of reference certainly doesn't make it "misinformation". I would like to ask this question: Why is giving people full disclosure of information considered "union-busting"? If the employees of these facilities had time to sort through information from all sides of this issue and then voted yes (or no for that matter) on unionization then that would have been fine. The vote was requested by the employer and a vote was set up quickly (not by accident either) and the Ohio Hospital Association thinks "that this was a great deal" so if that doesn't smell like a rat then nothing does!
micurn55
15 Posts
i checked out the nnoc page, the seiu page, and the seiu ohio page, and i think seiu has the moral authority here. here are what i consider to be the key points in seiu's favor:
1) chp workers chose seiu and had been working with them for years. lots of evidence on this, including a youtube video with chp employees that's pretty powerful.
[color=#003399]http://youtube.com/watch?v=inpoifnqqby
2) lots of evidence that, contrary to cna's assertions, seiu is a strong union in ohio. (by the way, i don't think cna has any union nurses in ohio...) check out the local website: www.seiu1199.org. i'm pretty sure they're politically powerful too. they helped an rn leader of their union to the ohio state senate. http://thewomblog.com/?p=52; http://www.senate.state.oh.us/senators/bios/sd_13.html.
3) all cna has to say is negative. nothing positive, just nasty smears against seiu and disrespect for the chp nurses who have been involved with seiu.