IMPORTANT CORRECTION: Jury awarded $737, 850 NOT $1.5 million, and some thoughts...

So, in all of the aftermath from the trial yesterday there has been a lot of confusion about the decision--from all sides.

Here are the important facts: Judge Alsup will meet with the parties again on Tuesday to make sure that the decision that the jury made was in line with the instructions the jury received. It is possible that the decision could be thrown out at that time.

It appears that the decision was initially misread by all parties-NUHW has put out a revised statement indicating the the award is only about half of what was originally thought. From Sadie Crabtree, NUHW Communications: "Our attorneys say the numbers on the jury's actual verdict form appear to indicate joint and several liability, making the total liability $737,850—less than half of what SEIU claimed in their announcement."

Here is a link to the Jury's decision, not that it makes a ton of sense to anyone: http://docs.google.com/gview?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nuhw.org%2Fstorage%2Fdocs%2Fverdict-form.pdf&pli=1

Also, check out Perez Stern's analysis of the "random" Jury decision.

To Tasty the most important lesson here is this: Members asked to leave SEIU repeatedly, the then leaders of UHW (aka the defendants in this trial) repeatedly pushed back and said that we needed to work on SEIU from inside. Until SEIU kicked them out as well. So they started a new organization, mostly because we asked them to and we are constantly are reminding them and our co-workers that this union has to be different and even better than UHW was. And they are working their tails off making it happen for us--many without pay for months at a time.

And while the whole thing is crazy and unfair, a jury just dinged them and their families--though maybe for significantly less than we originally thought--for standing by our wishes and now we have to stand by them. This is our time, members and supporters, to stand by these people. I for one am proud to do it.