In Southern
California, approximately 250 workers at College
Hospital Cerritos have ditched SEIU-UHW after the union reportedly failed to provide basic support
to its members … even failing to return workers’ phone calls.
In February
of 2013, 250 workers at the 157-bed psychiatric hospital in Cerritos, Calif. voted
to join SEIU-UHW.
Three years later, however, they’d had enough.
On October
25, 2016, workers petitioned the NLRB to conduct an election so they could exit SEIU-UHW and become “non-union.” On November 7, Bruce Harland -- SEIU-UHW’s hack
attorney -- submitted a one-page, handwritten letter to the NLRB announcing
that SEIU-UHW was officially “disclaiming interest” in being the workers’ union.
See Harland’s letter below, which reads in part:
Effective immediately, SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West hereby disclaims any interest whatsoever in representing workers in the unit…
What is “disclaiming
interest”?
Basically, it means SEIU-UHW decided to throw in the towel and let the
workers leave SEIU-UHW without a vote. SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan made the decision after his staffers determined
there’s so little support for SEIU-UHW that it would get blown out in an actual vote.
The
membership rebellion at College Hospital Cerritos is just the latest failure
for Regan, who has systematically cut the resources and staff needed to defend workers’ on-the-job
rights. Instead, Regan has funneled tens of millions of dollars of workers' dues into failed schemes with the California Hospital
Association, whose million-dollar executives conspired with Regan to try to eliminate workers' right to strike or report patient-care violations.
Last year, a
group of workers at a Dignity Health’s
Northridge Hospital Medical Center
in Los Angeles also
ditched SEIU-UHW after earlier voting to join the union. SEIU-UHW is known for its cozy relationship with hospital corporations and Regan's backroom deals with hospital execs.
 |
| Dave Regan |
And late
last month, an appeals court ordered SEIU-UHW officials to
stand trial for failing to defend one of its own members after she was improperly
laid off from her job of 24 years by Dignity Health, one of California’s
largest hospital corporations.
Here’s the
one-page legal letter from Bruce Harland, SEIU-UHW’s General Counsel.
Why did Harland hand-write the letter? Good question. Perhaps a computer class is next on Harland's list after he finishes some basic legal training.
