230 Calif. Hospital Workers Vote to Leave SEIU-UHW

Last week, 230 workers at 158-bed USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Los Angeles voted to dump SEIU-UHW as their union and return to non-union status, according to NLRB records and the Glendale News-Press. 

(Mark Kellam, “Members vote to decertify union at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital,” Glendale News-Press, February 1, 2019.)

The results of the NLRB election, which took place on January 30-31, are 118 (No Union) to 107 (SEIU-UHW).

The outcome was a blow to SEIU-UHW and its president, Dave Regan. It happened exactly 10 years after Regan seized control of SEIU-UHW following a trusteeship imposed by SEIU’s DC headquarters.

Quite a telling way to mark your 10-year anniversary on the job, right?

Since 2009, SEIU-UHW’s membership has declined by approximately one-third and Regan has poured more than $30 million of the union members’ dues into a failed strategy of using ballot initiatives to unionize healthcare workers.

Meanwhile, SEIU-UHW’s members routinely complain about the union’s failure to enforce labor contracts and its refusal to give basic workplace support to its members. Regan has also failed to organize effective bargaining campaigns to protect workers’ wages, benefits and working conditions.

Unlike other unions, SEIU-UHW refuses to conduct strikes to force hospital corporations to treat workers fairly.

Regan, who’s notorious for making backroom deals with employers, has given away the defined-benefit pension plans of tens of thousands of workers at hospital chains like Dignity Health and Verity Health, prompting other employers to seek the same concessions.

According to media reports, the workers at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital requested an election to dump SEIU-UHW after the union failed to deliver on its promise to help workers improve their pay and benefits.

NLRB: Workers at Two More California Facilities Are Dumping SEIU-UHW

The workers at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center aren’t the only ones who are leaving SEIU-UHW, according to the NLRB.

Apparently, workers have become so disgusted with SEIU-UHW's backdoor deals with corporate execs that some would prefer to have no union rather than be stuck in SEIU-UHW. 

Earlier this summer, hundreds of SEIU-UHW members at San Jose Medical Group, which operates a half dozen outpatient clinics in San Jose, California requested an NLRB election so they can leave SEIU-UHW and work without the support of any union, according to NLRB records.

Since the election request was filed, SEIU-UHW’s attorneys have been working overtime to block and stall the election.

At a second Northern California facility, SEIU-UHW’s members have already voted to become non-union.

According an official "Tally of Ballots" issued by the NLRB (see below), workers at 99-bed Bay Area Healthcare Center in Oakland voted by a margin of 61% (No Union) to 39% (SEIU-UHW) to dump SEIU-UHW, which is headed by "Wall Street" Dave Regan. 

Why?

Since 2009, Regan has worked hand-in-glove with giant healthcare corporations to slash SEIU-UHW members' wages and benefits. He's allowed hospital corporations to eliminate pensions for more than 30,000 SEIU-UHW members while also accepting wage freezes and health insurance cuts for many more. 

After SEIU-UHW lost the election at Bay Area Healthcare Center in February, SEIU-UHW’s attorney Bruce Harland used every stalling tactic in the book to delay the implementation of the final results. However, each purple monkeywrench has eventually been tossed aside by judges and the NLRB.

Here's the NLRB's "Tally of Ballots" from the election at Bay Area Healthcare Center:

  Nursing Home Workers Decertify SEIU-UHW: NLRB Tally of Ballots at BAHC 2-18-2015

Press: 880 Workers Vote to Decertify SEIU Local 521 in California

Last week, a unit of 880 government workers in Fresno County, Calif. voted to decertify SEIU Local 521 by a vote of 319-228, according to the Fresno Bee. 

The county employees -- who include corrections officers, child support officers, program technicians, and security guards -- voted to leave SEIU and join a new union called "Fresno County Public Safety Association." 

According to the newspaper, a second unit of approximately 500 benefit eligibility workers, social workers, and job specialists also wants to decertify SEIU. SEIU Local 521 represents public-sector employees in Central California.

Public-Sector Workers in Southern California Oust SEIU Local 721 in Landslide Election Victory

Last Thursday, nearly 400 workers at the Coachella Valley Water District in Southern California voted by a three-to-one margin to decertify SEIU Local 721 and to form a new union, the Coachella Valley Water District Employee Association (CVWDEA).

The final tally was 233 (CVWDEA) to 83 (SEIU Local 721) to 9 (“No Union”). A total of 377 workers were eligible to vote in the election.

A local newspaper, The Desert Sun, quoted the new association’s interim president as saying: “We will be self-governed.” The new union will work with City Employees Associates, which represents 105 independent associations of public-sector workers across California.

Workers at the Coachella Valley Water District provide water to more than 110,000 homes, farms and businesses in Riverside, Imperial and San Diego counties. Last July, workers petitioned for their decertification election with the full backing of the workers' local leaders, according to a newsletter. Officials at SEIU Local 721 then used legal maneuvers to stall the elections for seven months.

Congrats on the victory!

More California Workers Bolt SEIU-UHW

Caregivers at Corizon Prison Health Services (PHS) in the San Francisco Bay Area have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to dump SEIU-UHW and join the NUHW. 

The workers -- who include registered nurses, social workers, licensed vocational nurses and others -- provide care inside Alameda County's prison system and are employed by a for-profit company.

According to NUHW, the decertification petition was signed by over 80% of the workers in the bargaining unit. An RN with more than 25 years at the facility explained why Corizon PHS workers want out of SEIU-UHW.

“In our last contract negotiations, SEIU-UHW allowed our employer to impose huge cutbacks in health insurance, and then after the contract was settled their reps were nowhere to be found.  Calls to the union go unreturned, union representatives are unresponsive and management is never challenged even when they violate the terms of our contract.”

Airport Workers: We Want Out of "Our Do-Nothing-But-Take-Our-Dues Union" (aka, SEIU)

SEIU is once again under fire for selling out workers through backroom deals… and boosting workers’ union dues at the same time!

The latest criticism comes from 1,100 workers at San Francisco International Airport and is aimed at SEIU Local 1877, which is headed by Mike Garcia.  

A local newspaper reports that workers have already filed a petition with the NLRB. Meanwhile, a worker-run blog describes workers' effort to decertify SEIU and replace it with a worker-run union (see more below).  

Here’s an excerpt from an article in the San Francisco Examiner.

Tensions recently flared up between San Francisco International Airport security workers and their representatives at Local 1877 of the Service Employees International Union. Claiming that the union has rolled over in negotiations with the airport's private security contractor, Covenant Aviation Security, several workers have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for an open shop.

The signatories, who constitute more than 30 percent of the bargaining unit covered by SEIU's contract with Covenant, requested a "deauthorization" election that would make union dues voluntary. They plan to hold an election that could create one of the largest open shops in existence — 1,100 workers, including everyone from the checkpoint and baggage departments — if the petitioners garner a majority…

Baggage screener John Marteen, who has worked at the airport since November 2002, said the union has been too conciliatory in accepting Covenant's aggressive budget cuts, most of which sliced into workers' paychecks. Over the past year, Covenant has decreased holiday overtime pay by about 20 percent, raised employees' out-of-pocket expenses for hospital care and withdrawn reimbursements for employees' parking and shoes.

Rather than consulting workers, the SEIU took the liberty of bargaining by itself, Marteen said.

"In one of the meetings in the break room last week, the union said 'We had a choice of this and this, and we took the one that was less of a burden for you guys,'" he recounted.

"I said ... I wouldn't accept either of them," he added. "They never made a counter offer — they just accepted what the company presented."

He added that the union also raised the price of dues to 2.6 percent of each employee's paycheck in January, right after the employees got a 3 percent raise.

In a response, SEIU doesn’t challenge workers’ claims about its back-room deals and sell-out concessions. Instead, SEIU says some of the workers are receiving help from a right-wing, anti-union group.

This worker-run blog, however, indicates that workers are not anti-union, but instead want to decertify “our do-nothing-but-take-our-dues union” (SEIU) and replace it with a union that workers run themselves. 

In the blog, workers blast their Boss, Covenant Aviation, for its “profit at any cost” approach and “your complete and utter disregard for the well being of your employees and their families.”

If workers’ decertification effort is successful, SEIU Local 1877 will lose nearly 5% of its statewide membership.

More California Workers Bolt SEIU

The exodus from SEIU continues.

Yesterday, county workers in Kings County (which is just south of Fresno in California’s Central Valley) voted by a margin of 55% to 45% to decertify SEIU Local 521 and join a new independent union called the California League of City Employee Associations (CLOCEA). The new union now represents the county’s 650 employees.

SEIU employed its usual stalling tactics and delayed the election for nearly two years. Here’s an excerpt from a local newspaper article:

A nearly two-year battle for union representation of Kings County employees ended this week as workers picked a union with more local ties over the much larger Service Employees International Union.

The article goes on to note that “SEIU officials couldn’t be reached for comment.” Surprise, surprise.

The results are the latest in a string of election victories in which approximately 20,000 workers across California have bolted SEIU in recent years… from San Diego to Marin to Los Angeles to thousands of EMS workers in Northern California... and, of course, all of the healthcare workers who've joined NUHW.

Here’s the complete article about yesterday’s election:

The Hanford Sentinel

SEIU loses election to local union

Fierce battle ends with employees choosing group with county ties

February 06, 2013 4:30 pm  •  By Seth Nidever

HANFORD — A nearly two-year battle for union representation of Kings County employees ended this week as workers picked a union with more local ties over the much larger Service Employees International Union.

Bill Shawhan, the administrator of election winner California League of City Employee Associations, panned SEIU, accusing it of charging higher dues, spending money on partisan political campaigns and alienating workers.

“I feel that the employees were vindicated,” Shawhan said. “CLOCEA doesn’t get involved in partisan politics. We’re not involved in money going to Sacramento or Washington, D.C.”

SEIU officials couldn’t be reached for comment. The large international union, which boasts membership of 2.1 million workers, retains a small group of approximately 45 blue-collar Kings County employees, Shawhan said.

Shawhan was fired by the Service Employees International Union Local 521 in 2011. He responded by forming CLOCEA, which has been locked in a battle with SEIU ever since.

County employees petitioned to get out of SEIU in 2011, but had to wait a year due to a technicality. An election was finally held in December, but neither side received the necessary 50 percent-plus-one majority.

That forced another vote in January.

The final count to determine who would represent a bargaining unit of 645 county employees was tallied up Monday, giving Shawhan’s organization 55 percent, or 179 votes, compared to 45 percent, or 144 votes, for SEIU.

Turnout was 55 percent.

Kings County Supervisor Joe Neves said he was surprised when Shawhan got fired by SEIU and not surprised that SEIU finally lost.

“You know, [Shawhan’s] local, he’s accessible,” Neves said. “I think it does make a difference when you deal with someone who lives in the community.”

“I think [SEIU] picked a battle that they thought they could win, and [Shawhan] hung right in there,” Neves added. “They threw him some pretty hard punches. He took every one of them and kept fighting. You’ve got to give him that much.”