RN's Condemn SEIU Attack on Conference

[RN Power Ohio]

rns condemn violent service union attack at michigan event - hundreds of seiu staff bused in to smash into meeting to attack rns and break up conference on union democracy

the california nurses association/national nurses organizing committee tonight condemned a brutal assault by busloads of purple cloaked staff of the service employees international union who smashed into a conference of union members saturday night in dearborn, mi. and physically assaulted women and union members who stood in their path.

"i am deeply concerned about this heightened attack on women and nurses, directed by seiu president andrew stern," said cna/nnoc executive director rose ann demoro, who was scheduled to speak about the campaign for genuine healthcare reform at the banquet.

demoro cancelled her appearance at the event to coordinate support for cna/nnoc leaders in california after stern and seiu began sending roving bands of staff to the homes of cna/nnoc rn board members in california thursday and friday, stalking and harassing them.

"there is an ugly pattern here of physical abuse and tactics of intimidation that have no place in either our labor movement or a civilized society," demoro said.

seiu staff attacking union members in dearborn saturday night.

(jim west photo)

for more information about seiu's efforts on behalf of employers, see www.servingemployersinsteadofus.org .

please also see the labor notes account of this violent attack.

http://labornotes.org/node/1604

i was there and personnally witnessed seiu assaulting peaceful conference attendees including a retired woman. these tactics and disregard for democracy and peaceful debate are along the same behavior that promted a sham election in ohio in march. the seiu attendees were incapable of having a debate or discussion and brought their members to disrupt an entire conference.

note that many of the people on that bus did not even know they were getting on it to attack, assault and violently disrupt a conference meant to promote intelligent debate.----i guess seiu makes all their people drink vile purple kool-aid!

[SEIUnurses]

Hey, this is Nadia, SEIU staff (not a nurse myself). With all the back and forth about the protest at the Labor Notes conference, I wanted to set the record straight.

Here are the facts:

* Most of the SEIU members who traveled to Dearborn to express their disapproval of the CNA's tactics were women. They were primarily home care workers, nursing assistants, and other caregivers. Some brought their children with them.

* They had gathered at the conference hoping to voice their disapproval of the CNA's anti-union campaign in Ohio that stripped more than 8,000 hospital workers of the opportunity to freely choose whether to form a union with SEIU.

* Despite efforts to prevent the health care workers from making their voices heard, the rally was a peaceful one. Protestors talked to individual conference attendees about what happened in Ohio. They chanted "union busting is disgusting."

* At no time did they engage in or witness the kind of activities described by the CNA.

--posted by Nadia, SEIU staffer

[RN Power Ohio]

Are the labor notes staff lying too?

http://labornotes.org/

Did you look at the photo? Doesn't look very peaceful to me. How is it that 2 people were sent to the hospital in a peaceful demonstration....

[RN Power Ohio]

Another report from a conference attendee:

Here is one take on the violence perpetrated by the busloads of SEIU members who stormed the grand foyer area, they never making the large hall where peaceful union brothers and sisters were enjoying good talks and a Saturday evening meal. It should be said, by some of the comments heard from attendees, it appears many of the SEIU members brought into disrupt the conference may have been unwitting participants to what was planned for them. More news will be forthcoming, I am sure. If so, one must wonder at what level this trickery desends through the ranks to use their members in such a way.

http://www.progressohio.org/page/community/post/michaelcarano/C3FY

[rachaelalicia]

from the girl in the photo at dearborn, michigan

i am an organizer with seiu 1199 wok who was at the protest in dearborn. i am from a union family. my dad is a nurse, and an seiu member. i have seen my picture posted on the internet today, and used against me, my union and the people i care about. i want to tell you my story.

i have worked on the campaign to help chp workers win fair organizing rules from their boss since i started working at the local in june, 2005. knowing what it meant for the caregivers, housekeeping staff, maintenance workers, and all the other people i know who have been fighting for their union for three years - to watch that all go up in smoke due to the unprincipled union-busting of rose ann demoro's cna was just beyond upsetting. i drove up to dearborn, michigan to protest the fact that an organization that says it's committed to union democracy was honoring the architect of this union-busting as the keynote speaker at their banquet. and i wanted the real union people at the labor notes conference to hear what happened in ohio, not the barrage of lies the california nurses association keeps putting out everywhere.

on the bus on the way to the rally, bus captains read a set of ground rules stressing our total commitment to non-violence. i planned on walking into the meeting room and protesting the cna's union busting in ohio. our group included many women and a lot of people brought their children. none of us imagined we would be assaulted by the men at the labor notes conference!

once i was off the bus, we marched up to the locked glass doors and chanted. my sign was pressed up against the glass and i was watching a group of people with labor notes name tags pool together to watch us. we were all pressed up there for about a minute when someone opened the doors. i entered through the second set of doors and was heading toward the banquet room. our plan, and my own goal, was to march peacefully into the board room and support our chp sisters as they spoke and handed out literature about their stolen right to vote for their union.

however, the cna's supporters in the room ran out to confront us and used physical force to prevent our group from entering the ballroom and voicing our dissent. after only a few feet i found myself dodging out of the way of getting tackled. they started to attack us. i ran past about three men who tried to stop me by tackling me. i was about 10 feet away from the ballroom room door at the point that i was slammed into the ground. a man twice my size tackled me (a football tackle) and used his weight to hold me on the ground to prevent me from reaching the door. my head slammed into the floor and i could hardly breathe from the impact. i am only 115 pounds so to have a man twice my size tackle me like a linebacker was something i never expected. frank hornick, another 1199 wok staffer, came to my aid. the widely circulated photo of frank (http://labornotes.org/files/images/seiuprotest.280.jpg) was taken moments before he helped me - what you can't see in the picture was me on the floor being pinned down in front of frank. then all i could see were the shoes of the man that was trying to hold frank back from freeing me. frank pushed the guy off of me and i was able to take two steps forward until i was thrown on the ground again. another man grabbed the hood of my sweatshirt and ripped me down on the carpet. my skull hit the ground before my feet did. i couldn't breathe again. the neck of my sweatshirt was used to ground me. it was strangling me. he had a labor notes badge on, which is all i could see from the ground. my throat ached, and my necklace cut my neck. my hand was gashed and bleeding. i just remember pain after that. an organizer (and former member), pam callaham, pulled me back up off the ground by holding on to both of my shoulders. once i was up again it only took a couple steps to be at the door.

two days after this happened, i feel like i was run over by a truck. i still want to speak out about the cna's union-busting. i won't be scared off by these thugs. i still want the labor note people to know who they invited to speak to them. rose ann demoro - the union-buster.

but talk about adding insult to injury. right now, i just want to scream. a photograph of me being assaulted by them, and yelling out in pain has been posted on the web by cna bloggers as fake evidence of our treatment of women! i believe it was taken in the moment the labor notes or cna man grabbed my hood. he's behind me in the picture. (he did it from behind, i never saw his face, just his badge.)

they put the picture here, along with the photo of frank trying to get to me while i am laying on the ground. http://www.flickr.com/photos/17855870@n05/241134810

so, that's the story of the girl in the photo. hurt or not -- i will not be silenced by the california nurses, labor notes or anyone else.

rachael a. holland

organizer, seiu/district 1199 wv/oh/ky

[kam11882]

There are two sides to every story. I was at the conference and talked with many of the people defending the internal door afterwards. SEIU stormed the place, after their staff people inside the hotel opened the external locked doors for them. Some of the SEIU staffers attacking the conference were wearing bandana's over their faces. If you are coming to a peaceful protest, why hide your face? 6 people bravely stood in front of the doors to the ball room. 6 people against 500 (800 by SEIU's own account). They stood there as SEIU staffers push, shoved, and hit them. These people were not part of CNA, but instead a group of union representative brave enough to stand up for union democracy. What SEIU did was appalling and very scary. This rushed and violent attacked to gain access into the ballroom was obviously planned. There were SEIU staff and members inside the ball room, who were given an opportunity to speak throughout the day. Instead, SEIU choose to use violence and force to disrupt an otherwise peaceful event. Shame on SEIU.

[RN Power Ohio]

for a group committed to non-violence seiu sure seemed prepared to riot!

prior to the start of the event- seiu organizers led the ohio nurses from chp away from the dinner- so they would not be witness to the assault

the buses pull in at 7:29 by 7:31 the doors were breached

the seiu demonstrators were banging on the glass so hard they shook the whole wall

seiu entered in a "football rush" and trampled any and all in their path

the front line of seiu attackers were wearing bandanas over their face

the advance line of seiu staffers led the chanting group forward and pushed and punched and tried to break in, and almost did but a thin line of staffers and volunteers formed a chain at the door and kept most of them out

it doesnt sound like the intent was a peaceful protest. in fact, one observer compared their efforts to the teamsters blast attack in previous years.

"their press release was headed "seiu members stand up for the future of the labor movement." doesn’t seem like a future that i’m interested in. i saw it in the past, and would like to keep it there. "

seiu placed many of their members in harms way in dearborn some interviewed did not even know what they were doing there "i was just told to get on the bus" a demonstrator told interviewers.

had they known they would be part of a violent attack some may have opted out- left their children at home or chose to refrain for medical reasons.

[kam11882]

from the girl in the photo at dearborn, michigan

after only a few feet i found myself dodging out of the way of getting tackled. they started to attack us. i ran past about three men who tried to stop me by tackling me. i was about 10 feet away from the ballroom room door at the point that i was slammed into the ground.

frank hornick, another 1199 wok staffer, came to my aid. the widely circulated photo of frank (http://labornotes.org/files/images/seiuprotest.280.jpg) was taken moments before he helped me - what you can't see in the picture was me on the floor being pinned down in front of frank.

they put the picture here, along with the photo of frank trying to get to me while i am laying on the ground. http://www.flickr.com/photos/17855870@n05/241134810

what you are saying doesn't make sense when you look at the series of pictures here http://labornotes.org/node/1604 ,you can clearly see that frank is running forward when you compare these three pictures. he is charging towards the internal ball room doors, not trying to help you.

if you really were lying on the floor at the feat of the man holding back frank, then frank would have run over you as he charged pass them.

there was only one group perpetration violence against women and rns at this conference and that was seiu.

[kam11882]

I should have also mentioned that SEIU came in two waves. When they initially rushed into the lobby they pushed up against the internal doors as hard as they could with 6 defenders in their way. The doors opened outward, so the more they pushed the less chance they had of getting in. They realized this and let up their assault for a second. This gave the defenders time to open the doors just a crack and let more people out. Then, there was a ring of 20 or 30 people around the hotel lobby area who locked arms in order to prevent SEIU from getting to the door again. The people who came to their aid, were just the average conference goer, who just knew someone was attacking their conference and wanted to help. They locked arms in a peaceful resistance to SEIU.

[RN Power Ohio]

See the video documentary on CNA/NNOC website

http://calnurses.org/

[VinoLover2030]

That is really sad...people....very very sad.

[nursestimpy]

this SEIU staff person "setting the record straight" must not have been on one of those buses. what a disgrace!!! i saw with my own eyes this "peaceful protest" of SEIUers. i find it hard to fathom that a true and honest "caregiver", home healthcare worker, human being in general would agree to rant and rave like a bunch of idiots in front of not only their children, but many, many members of our INTERNATIONAL community. this was my first experience with labor notes. i think SEIU mistook the collective bargaining workshop for collective barnstorming!

i'd love to hear what our foreign visitors are saying about this "peaceful american protest of SEIU" to there friends and families!