Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Report from the Frontlines at Kaiser Permanente


So what's happening inside Kaiser Permanente's facilities?

Well, just two days remain before the NLRB sends ballots to the homes of 45,000 healthcare workers in what will be the largest private-sector election since the 1940s.

Here's what readers are saying:

SEIU-UHW continues to parachute tons of pizzas and organizers into Kaiser's hospitals in an effort to lure voters to purple tables where SEIU "teaches" them how to mark their ballots. And in predictable fashion, SEIU has designed its materials for third graders. Here's a photo of SEIU-UHW's "educational" table inside Kaiser Modesto Medical Center... which features advice from "Contract Buddy" and even a picture of a mail box for those workers who've forgotten how to mail a letter.



Meanwhile, NUHW supporters are holding "red days" to show their support. Check out these pics from various facilities across the state.

Walnut Creek Medical Center

Livermore Warehouse

Bangs Clinic

Let's get this election going!

Finally, here’s an article about the election that was just published in “Labor Notes.” The piece includes an interesting quote from a former member of SEIU-UHW’s Executive Board who recently resigned her position so she could throw her support behind NUHW.

Here’s how she describes her experience during SEIU-UHW’s “partnership” bargaining with Kaiser Permanente:
Diane Barton, a pharmacy tech in Santa Clara, was an SEIU-UHW board member and was on the 2012 bargaining team. She complains that union officials negotiated behind closed doors.

“They bring us in the very last day of bargaining, and they said, ‘This is what you are going to get.’ And we go home,” she said.

“Dave Regan comes in and says the same thing the employer said: ‘You are lucky you have a job, there are people waiting outside,’” Barton said. “That’s what flipped me. You can’t have a union boss that says the same thing as the boss.”

Hey Red Team, it's time to take back your union! Let's go, Red!