(Note: More press links have been added below.)
Check this out! NUHW announced it's affiliating with the California Nurses Association.
Check this out! NUHW announced it's affiliating with the California Nurses Association.
Earlier today, the two unions held a press
conference in Oakland, California where NUHW announced that its members voted
overwhelmingly to approve the affiliation. Tasty has posted links to press coverage below.
Sources say the move is a game-changer... and that the
Purple Palace is panicked. Here's what
happened.
According to Tasty's sources, the California Nurses
Association has become increasingly outraged at the unprecedented concessions
that SEIU's Dave Regan has been negotiating
with California’s hospital corporations. These concessions -- including
eliminating the defined-benefit pensions for 20,000 SEIU-UHW members and slashing workers' health benefits -- have emboldened the companies to demand the same
cuts from CNA's members, who happen to work in the same hospitals across
California.
Recently, Regan even teamed up with the industry’s
chamber of commerce -- the California
Hospital Association -- to try to reverse
California’s landmark safe-staffing law for hospitals.
As workers' wages and benefits swirl down the toilet with each successive
flush by Dave Regan, the CNA decided it needed to join forces with an aggressive union like NUHW. That's the goal of
the affiliation -- to create a united front against the multi-billion-dollar
hospital corporations and their company union, SEIU.
This shakeout among California's unions comes as no surprise to observers. In fact, Duane Dauner, CEO
of the California Hospital Association, said as much in a recent interview... when he named the hospital industry's "friends and foes." The CNA and NUHW are "in one camp," says Dauner, because "they draw a line in the sand" against healthcare corporations. (Wait a sec, isn't that what unions are supposed to do? Hmm... how else can workers possibly win anything if they don't "draw a line in the sand"?)
Meanwhile, Dauner says SEIU-UHW and Dave Regan "are in another camp." Apparently, that's the camp that gladly hands over workers' hard-earned wages and benefits to super-profitable corporations like Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health. No wonder Duane is BFFs with Dave Regan.
Meanwhile, Dauner says SEIU-UHW and Dave Regan "are in another camp." Apparently, that's the camp that gladly hands over workers' hard-earned wages and benefits to super-profitable corporations like Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health. No wonder Duane is BFFs with Dave Regan.
Tasty sends his congrats to the members of the CNA and NUHW!
And here's some of the press coverage on today’s historic affiliation:
AP, “HealthUnion Alliance Could Threaten Larger Rival.”
In These Times, “CNA and NUHW Join Forces against SEIU in California.”
San Jose Mercury News, “National Union of Healthcare Workers Affiliates with Powerful California Nurses Association.”
Labor Notes, “Back Together Again: CNA and NUHW Join Forces against Kaiser in California.”
Wall Street Journal, “Health-Care Unions Will Join Forces.”
Vallejo Times-Herald,
“Two
Health Workers Unions Fighting Together to Keep Members from Joining Competitor.”
AP, “HealthUnion Alliance Could Threaten Larger Rival.”
In These Times, “CNA and NUHW Join Forces against SEIU in California.”
San Jose Mercury News, “National Union of Healthcare Workers Affiliates with Powerful California Nurses Association.”
Labor Notes, “Back Together Again: CNA and NUHW Join Forces against Kaiser in California.”
Wall Street Journal, “Health-Care Unions Will Join Forces.”
