micurn55

I definitely agree that nurses need a powerful national union. I'm not sure that CNA/NNOC fits the bill however. Personally, I would prefer a union that includes all nurses (LPNs too) and other nursing staff. CNA only includes RNs. Also I find their recent "vote no" campaign at the CHP hospitals in Ohio very troubling. For an organization that believes that the way for RNs to have a real voice in patient care is for them to have a union to prevent RNs from joining a union after years of work seems wrong. Check out the Ohio SEIU website to read more about this story: www.seiu1199.org.

I find much of the language used by pro-CNA/NNOC posters on this site to describe SEIU troubling. (i.e. SEIU hurts human rights, SEIU is sleazy, SEIU is against patients.) This incredibly negative hateful language contrasts sharply with the posts by SEIU members, who seem to love their organization and to have made great strides with it. To me, the question is why is the CNA/NNOC so focussed on SEIU, literally to the point of foaming at the mouth when this organization is mentioned in a positive light? Isn't the purpose of the CNA/NNOC to help nurses rise standards? To me, if that is the goal of the CNA/NNOC, it should focus on uniting nurses and not on tearing down SEIU. By the way, I think there are a lot of posters on this site who are not nurses (both pro-CNA and pro-SEIU). No real way to regulate it on a website like this.

I'm from Ohio, and I know some of the facts around this story. Nurses and other employees at 9 or 10 hospitals in Ohio had been trying to get a vote for three years and were just a couple days from voting union. Dozens of CNA organizers showed up at the hospitals, snuck into them, and ran a "vote no" campaign. It seems like it caused the same sorts of doubts and anxiety that a "vote no" campaign by management causes. Anyway, the elections had to be cancelled and those employees do not have a union. Check out the union website. They have a lot of good links and background: www.seiu1199.org. I don't know if I've seen http://www.shameoncna.com.

I think SEIU's website is http://www.seiu.org/health/nurses/. I've contacted them about organizing before and its pretty easy if you follow the links. I think that I sent an email.

The piece of literature in question asks nurses to "Vote No" repeatedly. Don't understand how that could fail to be interpreted as anti-union. Chico David, How does the old saying go, "thou doth protest too much?"

Barbikins, check out the post at the top of this page! Clearly you are biased in favor of Roseann Demoro and the CNA/NNOC. I can tell you for sure that young people in Ohio are NOT more likely to look at nursing as a career as a result of work done by the CNA. CNA's accomplishments in Ohio, by my research: 1) Busting the union at approx 10 CHP hospitals throughout the state. 2) Making a big fuss over a ratios bill that has no chance of passing our Republican legislature. 3) Collecting money from nurses who send them checks and are called "members," who do not get a union in return.

I wish we had more union hospitals in Ohio. Almost the only way to make real money here as a nurse is to work agency. My observation is that the benefits are getting really bad too. HOw long before smokers and "overweight" people can not get any healthcare benefits at all working at a hospital?

Check these out from the same paper as the first article on this strand: Your Letters for Mar. 23 - Hospital Union Sunday, March 23, 2008 Outsiders made vote impossible I work at Springfield Regional Medical Center-High St. campus and witnessed some of the outrageous behavior by the California Nurses Association, a so-called "professional" union. CNA organizers snuck into our hospital and plastered their ugly and negative propaganda in the nursing units. They stood outside and harassed nurses as they were walking in to start their shift. Some of us veterans even had to go escort some of the younger nurses into the building, because they were afraid of how pushy and aggressive the CNA people were being. We worked so hard to finally have a peaceful vote, and then these people from California come in with nothing positive to say and bad-mouth something we built. They made it so tense that a fair vote wasn't possible, and that's why we canceled our vote. To say otherwise is simply untrue. Sally Baker, RN Springfield CNA robbed us of our union As someone who has worked for over three years campaigning for fair union elections at our Springfield and Urbana hospitals, I was appalled and disgusted when I read the commentary from Rhonda Risner Hanos on March 18. Hanos, it is clear you do not work in one of our Springfield hospitals, because if you did you would know that what you and the California Nurses Association are saying is a twisted series of lies. Not only were we allowed to talk about the union at work, we did talk about the union at work, and we did it a lot. In fact, our right to do so was explicitly outlined for us in the packets of information we received from SEIU and CHP. Next, to suggest that we didn't show interest in forming a union with SEIU is absolutely outrageous; in reality, my co-workers and I have campaigned publicly over the past three years to have the opportunity to form a union with SEIU. For you and CNA to imply that we were somehow hoodwinked in this process is an insult to our intelligence. The CNA is an elitist organization that robbed us of our union. End of story Lorie Compton, CRT/RCP Springfield CNA tactics were offensive As a lifetime Springfield resident and an 18-year SEIU 1199 member, I would like to thank you for publishing an accurate report on how the California Nurses Association sunk the efforts of SEIU and Catholic Health Partners to conduct a peaceful vote on the right to organize. The only thing that was sleazy about the efforts of SEIU and CHP was the CNA wasting valuable resources bashing the SEIU. If I were a CNA member, I would hang my head in shame that my organization was involved in union-bashing activities that resulted in over 8,000 health care workers not getting the opportunity to vote for union representation. I was greatly offended by the pamphlet that was distributed by CNA declaring that RNs deserve to be a part of a professional union. As a licensed professional, I have provided a service to our community for more than 25 years and am proud to be represented by SEIU, a professional service union. I have seen its members stand up for the rights of workers in many different walks of life. I hope CHP workers will have a chance soon to vote for a union that will back them as professionals instead of having to listen to one that was willing to make the workers sacrificial lambs by the CNA wolves sent out to devour their right to vote. Dorothy Lemmings Springfield

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. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/union-busting kinda hurts the argument that cna is incapable of doing union-busting, doesn't it?

Check out the Ohio SEIU website: www.seiu1199.org. They have a lot of good links to newspaper articles, videos, etc. about this. I don't buy the arguments by the NNOC, that nog signing union cards makes this company unionism. Too legalistic for me, I guess!

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

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.

Apologize for the namecalling. I was in a union drive at my hospital years ago that did not go through. Just so sorry for these nurses who don't have a union now.

this looks really anti union. is this a cna press release? disturbing. wouldn't a no vote have resulted in no union, not the cna? i think it must be illegal for a union to say this kind of thing (which is at the least confusing and misleading) so close to a vote.

Here is something from the New York Times on the bote being cancelled: Dave Regan, president of a service employees' local representing 35,000 health care workers in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky, called the nurses union's efforts immoral and despicable. "Their conduct is indistinguishable from that of the most vicious anti-union employers," Mr. Regan said. "It violates every principle of unionism. Real people are worse off today as a result of their behavior." > http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/us/12union.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=greenhouse&st=nyt&oref=slogin This article makes the CNA sound bad. Roseann sounds like a communist. Is she even a nurse?