I don't get it...CNA Ohio

Organize1199 · Mar 19, 2008

Dear Miss Mab,

Your organizers came here in huge numbers, three years into the campaign - on the week of the election - to destroy it. They lied to workers, sent awful, hateful mail to nurses and other employees; they called people at home, snuck into the hospital to lie about SEIU and the agreement, and called into the hospital to lie and lie and lie.

Healing the wounds your people caused will take time. Perhaps you can't imagine the courage it takes to go through a three year long campaign, afraid, but pressing on. But - then again maybe you can. Can you imagine how folks can become afraid & confused when rabid anti-union "union organizers" mount a vicious, terrifying campaign to stop you from organizing?

If we had another election tomorrow, your union-busting California organizers will come here again and bust the union again and again. What's to stop them? They are bragging about it at the top of their website with a VICTORY flyer. A union, claiming VICTORY that 8000 workers were denied a union! It's the most disgusting thing I have ever seen from a so-called union. The CNA had nothing to do with employees of CHP for a three year campaign. They have never organized a single worker in the state.

What I beg you to do, as a CNA member, is ask yourself this. Your union dues are paying for union busting. If you think that's right, sister, you got it. Go get your red A. But please, if not, you have got to hold your leadership accountable.

IN SOLIDARITY

RN Power Ohio · Mar 19, 2008

What's not to get...With a rushed back door election these are the kinds of things SEIU will do! No wonder the Ohio Hospital Association (which spends millions on union avoidance) praises the deal between SEIU and CHP

http://www.sfweekly.com/2004-06-30/news/partners-in-slime/3

I am proud to be part of an organization that actually fights for patient rights and NOT corporate rights. NNOC is not selling it's soul but rather spread the soul and spirit of true health care reform and patient safey.

micurn55 · Mar 19, 2008

miss mab i agree with you that cna is not lazy. much rather have their energy focussed on organizing non-union rns out by you in california then busting up union elections. check out this blog from someone who's relative is a chp nurse:

cna is lying. this union must be stopped, open left (blog), by: adamterando, march 18, 2008

http://openleft.com/showdiary.do?diaryid=4590

Organize1199 · Mar 19, 2008

"RN Power",

You are so off base I don't know what to tell you. This is Ohio. We are real people and we sure don't need your San Francisco newspaper to tell us what you did. SEIU/District 1199 has been organizing health care workers in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky since the 1970s.

You drove down from your Cleveland law firm to stop hospital workers from organizing a union. You betrayed 8,000 Ohio families. Have you no sense of decency, of right and wrong? Can you even distinguish the truth from the lies you've been repeating?

Oh, sister. You really missed the mark. Please, just take the time to listen to what CHP workers and their families have to say.

Here's a youtube video:

Here is a reaction to the situation, posted by a worker's family member:

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/3/17/0351/48699

Here's a letter from CHP employees, posted to Allnurses:

https://allnurses.com/forums/f323/cna-s-union-busting-ohio-open-letter-288194.html

RN Power Ohio · Mar 19, 2008

the bigger picture might help:

http://www.lawmemo.com/nlrb/joint_petitions.htm

notice that 1. no evidence of support is necessary and 2. nlra section 8 2 a and b cannot be invoked. i believe these are the protections against company unions. they were instated in 1935 for a reason.

sounds like the nlra (in good timing for the chp situ) would like to reimpose company unions on workers.

look carefully at the date of proposal and compare to seiu chp timeline.

respectfully,

rn power ohio

RN Power Ohio · Mar 19, 2008

Yes, the video is compelling. It does show that a small minority of the 8,000 workers actually supported SEIU. These are the very few people who were involved in the selection of SEIU.

They should keep organizing, gain support and file for an up front election.

RN Power Ohio · Mar 19, 2008

You are so off base I don't know what to tell you. This is Ohio. We are real people and we sure don't need your San Francisco newspaper to tell us what you did.

Clearly, you didn't read the article..it actually is about what SEIU did.

Organize1199 · Mar 19, 2008

i'm afraid you're talking lawyer again. back to work at your law office? please. we had a secret ballot elections scheduled, one for each unit of each hospital. get real.

if you thought the workers you saw on their video didn't have the support to win the elections, why on earth did you feel the need to come down here in 20 inches of snow and harass, intimidate and confuse everyone?why did you dress up as fake pizza delivery people and sneak into the hospitals to spread your incredible lies? why did you call into workers' departments and into their houses? why did you send out thousands of color glossy flyers packed with insults, lies and the oft-repeated anti-union "vote no"?

why does your website congratulate 8,000 workers on not getting the union?

we expect this kind of thing from management. and, i guess i don't know what to expect from the kind of nurse who works at a law firm in cleveland and busts the union in her spare time.

but i implore cna members - real union women and real union men who are watching this unfold: look at the unthinkable thing that your leaders did to 8,000 ohio families and hold them accountable. this is your union dues money, busting the union in ohio. watch the video, and read workers' accounts of what they spent your dues to do. this has to stop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inpoifnqqby

in solidarity

RN Power Ohio · Mar 20, 2008

An article from an Ohio RN.

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/o/content/oh/story/opinions/editorial/2008/03/18/sns031808edityourturnnurses.html

Organize1199 · Mar 20, 2008

"RN Power",

It is childishly dishonest to pass off that letter to the editor as a "an article from Ohio nurse". It's by a friend of yours, a CNA activist. Just a few weeks ago the two of you testified together at the Statehouse in Columbus, opposing a nurse staffing bill.

Like you, the author is not working at a hospital. She is a failed politician, having recently come in 4th in a field of 5, for city council in a small town.

But you two aren't the real problem. The problem is that 60,000 union members' dues are going to bust the union in Ohio. I pray they will make their voices heard.

IN SOLIDARITY

Chico David, BSN, RN · Mar 22, 2008

I'm afraid I just have to keep asking the same questions again and again here, since no one seems to be able to answer them on any of the threads related to this subject:

1. If there was so much work done on this campaign and so much support for organizing, why was it so easy for a handful of people to stop it in 4 or 5 days with a few flyers?

2. What was it exactly about the presence of a few CNA/NNOC volunteers and staff that made it impossible to hold an election?

SEIU has come in to attack and try to block CNA/NNOC elections in a number of places with little success, since the actual support has been built to win.

I would also take exception to the repeated use of the term "union busting".

I've seen that literature - it repeatedly makes the case that SEIU is the wrong union and that there is a better union. It never uses anti-union rhetoric or management talking points. Which SEIU has done in more than one case when trying to block a CNA/NNOC election. For example, one of the most common anti-union talking points is to try to scare nurses about strikes, which is what SEIU did in our successful campaign in Reno.