Remember all the hullabaloo surrounding SEIU's organizing
drive at an Ohio hospital company called Catholic
Health Partners (CHP)? That's the one that sparked SEIU's violent attack
on a Labor Notes conference in 2008 that sent some conference-goers to the
emergency room and left David Smith,
an SEIU homecare worker, dead of a heart attack.
Well... Tasty recently learned about a particularly
pathetic conclusion to this pathetic episode in SEIU's recent history. Here's some background.
Some years ago, SEIU's Dave
Regan, Scott Courtney and Mary Kay Henry launched a campaign to
organize thousands of workers at CHP hospitals in Ohio. This trio of Purple
Palace officials literally spent millions of SEIU members’ dues dollars
on the campaign.
In 2008, CHP executives announced they had decided to use an
obscure provision of federal labor law (called an "RM" petition) to
run snap elections so that 8,000 workers could vote on joining SEIU. This
unusual approach didn’t require 30% of the workers to sign petitions to trigger
the elections. Instead, the Boss simply ordered the election. Unsurprisingly,
this prompted calls that CHP was
trying to install SEIU as its company union.
During the run-up to the election, the California Nurses Association leafleted CHP's nurses about SEIU’s
sweetheart deal with the company. SEIU cried bloody murder and promptly
cancelled the election. That’s when Regan and other SEIU officials ordered the
violent attack on the Labor Notes conference, where the head of CNA was
supposed to speak.
Eventually, CHP and SEIU rescheduled the election for the 8,000 workers. Even though SEIU was the only union on the
ballot, SEIU got trounced in the election. In fact, SEIU lost 40 of the 44 separate elections in the “bargaining units” covering CHP’s workforce.
Since then, SEIU’s negotiators have been bargaining a
first contract for the 600 CHP workers who’re now members of SEIU. Last week,
an Ohio newspaper published this
article describing SEIU’s new contract. How'd the workers do under SEIU? Not so good. In
fact, SEIU’s contract provides ZERO improvements to workers’ wages, benefits
and working conditions. Here’s how a hospital official described SEIU’s
contract:
There are no separate standards giving Union employees more money or rights and privileges than non-union employees have in the workplace.
In fact, workers will end up losing money after SEIU deducts 1.75% of their wages for union dues.
So why did SEIU negotiate such a horrible contract? This, my friends, has all the telltale signs of one of SEIU's backroom deals with the Boss. Dave
Regan and Mary Kay Henry likely convinced CHP officials to run the union
elections in exchange for SEIU’s commitment to negotiate a contract with no increases in wages, benefits or working conditions. That way, SEIU officials could
accomplish their #1 goal: increasing SEIU’s membership… even if workers end up
losing money on the deal.
