SEIU Vote at Ohio Catholic Healthcare Partners

klbackus · Mar 13, 2008

My nursing career has been dedicated to advancing nurses' voices in our hospitals, our communities, our state legislatures and in Congress. I've chosen to work with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) because it is the best organization to advocate for professional nurses in all of these areas.

The California Nurses Association (CNA) stooped to an all-time low when it interfered in a democratic election whereby 8,000 nurses and other hospital employees could choose whether or not they wanted to form a union with SEIU. Now, those caregivers are left without a voice--not SEIU, not CNA.

This is just another ill-spirited maneuver that threatens our patients and profession. Time and time again, CNA has used whatever union-busting means necessary, including lies, threats, and intimidation, to prevent healthcare employees from uniting in SEIU--these are not virtues that our profession stands for. And these tactics aren't isolated to one state, much less the state of California where 100,000 RNs are without a union. I've seen it in St. Louis, Chicago, Reno, Las Vegas, Memphis and more.

My heart goes out to the RNs at Catholic Healthcare Partners and other hospitals who have had their dreams shattered by CNA--a so-called patient advocacy organization and so-called union.

pvhEDRn · Mar 13, 2008

It is my understanding that the RN's along with their co-workers worked together with SEIU for over 3 years to get this election. To get the ability to advocate for themselves and their patients. They went door to door to drum up support and put pressure on CHP. They met with government officals. They risked their jobs. Now the hope of having a greater voice for their patients and themselves has been trashed by a Union that could have also been there 3 years ago and working with the Nurses.

I get so tired of CNA's our union or no union mentality. The shortages are real and getting worse. Without a voice nurses and patients have no protections. I working a facility in which the RN's and everyone else are represented by SEIU. We have an all RN local. Together the two locals work together and we have not only stopped the hospitals plans to get rid of all support staff in response to the mandated ratios in our state, but we have made improvements.

CNA should colaborate with SEIU and not just chase them arounds preventing others from getting a voice.

Ludlow · Mar 14, 2008

This is not the 1st time SEIU has negotiated with the bosses long before ever finding out what the majority of the workers want and need. About 5 years ago they did the same thing with Tenet.

stephrnmedsurg123456 · Mar 14, 2008

ludlow, please get the facts straight. nurses, not bosses or the seiu, were going to determine what nurses wanted in the union votes at chp hospitals. the nurses were deciding by secret ballot election whether or not they wanted a union -- no dictatorship here, just democracy. it seems to me that if anyone was acting without respect to the nurses wishes, it was the cna organizers who showed up, started engaging in extremely disruptive and misleading behavior, and led to these elections being cancelled. i have seen zero evidence that a majority of chp nurses asked the cna to come in and bust up their secret ballot union elections!

check out this quote from someone, who unless i'm mistaken, is a nurse at one of the affected hospitals:

yesterday, 09:51 pm

fred456

registered user

join date: mar 2008

posts: 2

thanked 1 time in 1 post

re: attention chp ohio rn's

permalink

i read the quote from samantha rn. 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. :nurse:

https://allnurses.com/forums/f167/attention-chp-ohio-rn-s-287639-3.html

Ludlow · Mar 14, 2008

Ludlow, please get the facts straight. Nurses, not bosses or the seiu, were going to determine what nurses wanted in the union votes at chp hospital

Thanks for pointing this out. Please remember though that when nurses determine if they want to be represented by a union, they organize, sign cards stating that they want union representation, and then when at minimum 30% of the nurses in a potential bargaining unit has signed cards showing they want representation, they go to a vote. 30% of 3000 nurses would be 900 nurses. Where are they?

NorthernNurse1 · Mar 14, 2008

Good questions---another union could have been on the ballot if even one worker asked for that union. Plus, CNA had three years to do this, but they do not work that way. Their history is to come in at the last minute and ruin other nurses' and healthcare workers' elections.

NorthernNurse1 · Mar 14, 2008

I have NEVER heard of management filing for a union election!

HOW did that happen?

Oh, I don't know, maybe by labor law?

RN Power Ohio · Mar 14, 2008

I have NEVER heard of management filing for a union election!
HOW did that happen?

Oh, I don't know, maybe by labor law?

Please read NLRA section 8. The portion that discusses "company unions"

NorthernNurse1 · Mar 14, 2008

Hi,
yes, NYSNA is collecting the emails and fowarding them.
Why are unions from New York and California so fearful about an election
in Ohio? Neither of these organizations would include the non-RN healthcare workers anyway.

RN Power Ohio · Mar 14, 2008

Hi,
yes, NYSNA is collecting the emails and fowarding them.
Why are unions from New York and California so fearful about an election
in Ohio? Neither of these organizations would include the non-RN healthcare workers anyway.
Ohio Nurses Association involved as well. Please read all posts. This was not about being on the ballot or being fearful of elections. It was about the imposition of SEIU on all employees by CHP without the necessary showing of support.
It is wrong for nurses and all other employees as well. It is a dangerous infringement on civil liberties. It is bigger than CHP. This was a potentially devastating precendent for the entire labor movement.
Why were employees forbidden to talk about this with each other? This was clearly stated in the letter employees received. Sounds close to a violation of freedom of speech and assembly. Why was the election so rushed? It is obvious that you want SEIU to represent you. But others were not involved in this decision. Why not hold town hall meetings and gain the signatures from 30% of the 8,000 employees at CHP.
I cannot understand why all these workers did not publicly protest NNOC if there was such support for an SEIU election.

Ludlow · Mar 14, 2008

Good questions---another union could have been on the ballot if even one worker asked for that union. Plus, CNA had three years to do this, but they do not work that way. Their history is to come in at the last minute and ruin other nurses' and healthcare workers' elections.

Except that in reality the SEIU/CHP deal did not allow any other union on the ballot. SEIU's company union deal with CHP awarded SEIU exclusive representation rights which foreclosed intervention, prohibited employee opposition speech, association and organizing, and became final upon ratification in a closed, uncontested election.

Whew! A place like that does not sound like America. However, having been stuck in the middle of one of these SEIU/Employer schemes (I worked at a Tenet hospital when Tenet and SEIU tried something similar about 5 years ago), I know just how chilling, repressive and intimidating those arrangements can be for anyone not wanting SEIU.

RNadvocate · Mar 14, 2008

i hope i did this right, but i was looking up online about how the CNA has worked out for Chicago RNs and found this. yikes.

BrokenPromises.pdf