RN's deserve a real choice

[RN Power Ohio]

hospital chain and hand picked union, seiu, forced to cancel rigged election after protests by rns and other employees - 'a victory for employees, patient care, and union democracy'

after public exposure and protests, the catholic healthcare partners chain and its hand picked union, the service employees international union, today cancelled rigged elections -- called without a single sign of support from the employees -- planned this week for 8,000 registered nurses and other employees at nine ohio hospitals in cincinnati, lima, and springfield.

"this is a significant victory for employee rights, patient care protections, and workplace democracy, and a huge setback for a hospital industry and seiu that hoped to make this shoddy abuse of what should be a democratic process into a national model," said rose ann demoro, executive director of the national nurses organizing committee/california nurses association, which challenged the sham elections.

chp and seiu arranged the votes through a top-down deal that "turned decades of labor law rights for employees on their head and made a mockery of constitutional protections of free speech," demoro noted.

with the collusion of the bush administration's national labor relations board, the employer filed for the election without any showing of support for seiu, and maneuvered to stifle opposition and block potential participation from any legitimate union, she said.

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.

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."

the cancelled elections, demoro added, are a "huge blow to seiu international's corrupted approach to growth at the expense of the public interest or a democratic voice of the workers."

"seiu depends on the complicity and support of employers even without any indication of support from the workers they are pretending to represent. that's not what unions should stand for, and it's not democratic," said demoro. she noted growing opposition from seiu members across the nation, reflected on the website www.reformseiu.org.

finally, demoro also criticized the role of the labor board. the planned chp elections were a template for new rules proposed by the nlrb to sanction employers filing elections without worker support, a form of company unionism that the 1935 law creating modern labor law rights was intended to stop.

but the current nlrb, stacked with anti-union appointees by the bush administration, "has been steadily gutting workers' rights, and turning the board into a vehicle for suppressing worker democracy and rights rather than protecting them. this election, and the rules now proposed, are a critical component of that ominous trend," demoro added.

[samanthaRN]

The above does not appear to be based on facts; it appears to be a press release from the CNA. Here's a quote from a nurse who works at one of these hospitals from another thread on allnurses.com:

Mar 12, 2008, 02:59 PM

Diamax2

Registered User

Join Date: Mar 2008

Posts: 1

Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post

Re: SEIU Vote at Ohio Catholic Healthcare Partners

permalink

As an RN at an Ohio Catholic Health Partners hospital, I have been aware of SEIU's attempts over the past 3 years to unionize and CHP has fought the union every step of the way, including mandatory films we had to sit through telling us why we didn't need a union. According to the newspapers, there was a class action lawsuit by CHP employees....aided by SEIU...who were denied lunch breaks and other such oversights. They apparently won some type of settlement against CHP and an agreement to allow a union vote was reached.

I am aware of no efforts by any other union to organize the employees in my hospital so it came as a total shock to find these California people invading our hospitals, getting their literature into locked lounges, and onto floors they should not have been on.....just days before the election.

Since when has a democratic vote for a union ever been considered imposing a union on employees?! The votes could have gone either way. What they have done is deny us any vote at all....a huge disappointment to those of us who don't like being totally at the mercy of management and how they want to interpret their polices, to which we have no input. I don't know how this California group could possibly get any more unprofessional. I would rather have NO union than to ever see them representing me.

[RN Power Ohio]

seiu vote at mercy hospitals cancelled

march 11, 2008

the uncontested union elections scheduled to be held on march 12-14 by the service employees international union (seiu) for 4200 workers at five hospitals operated by catholic healthcare partners in ohio have been cancelled. the vote has not been rescheduled.

read an article in cincinnati's business courier about the vote cancellation.

ona believes that rns in ohio should have a choice about their union representation and feels that the nurses were not being given the opportunity to choose a professional nurses’ union, such as the ohio nurses association, which would truly represent their interests. thousands of nurses rely on the ohio nurses association for guidance, strength, protection and promotion of their profession at the workplace, and ona is deeply committed to their economic and general welfare.

ona is not only the premier professional association for ohio's registered nurses, it is also the union for the thousands of nurses who have chosen ona for representation through its economic & general welfare program. nurse educators, health care researchers, and other scholars recognize the important role unions can play in advancing professional nursing and improving patient care, as do the members of the ohio nurses association.

we would like to thank all of the nurses and organizations that have supported our mission to let ohio's rns have a choice about their union representation. if you would like additional information about this issue, please contact brett anderson, economic & general welfare program director, at 614-448-1021 or [color=#993300][email protected].

source: ona website

http://www.ohnurses.org/am/template.cfm?section=news&template=/cm/contentdisplay.cfm&contentid=2429

[samanthaRN]

Here's a quote from one of the CHP nurses fred456 from another thread. Seems to me like the nurses picked seiu, and are angry at the intervention by cna and ona:

SEIU was not hand picked The vote was not called off because of none support, but was called off because of the interruption of patient care caused by the NNOC/CNA. The NNOC says 'SEIU was forced to cancel rigged election after protests by RNs and other employees.' Not true!! The cancellation of the election is not a huge blow to SEIU or CHP. We will have our election later. It has only been postponed. So NNOC/CNA stay in california. The nurses in OHIO believe in professionalism and empowering their nurses to make decision, not being bullied.