Here's an
interesting "tale of two unions" story.
SEIU-UHW is failing to win unionization
elections engineered through Dave Regan's
backroom deal with the California Hospital
Association.
For example,
workers at Mission
Hospital rejected SEIU-UHW in an election held earlier this year despite the
fact that the hospital's executives gave every possible advantage to SEIU-UHW
and basically pleaded with their workers to join the purple union.
Meanwhile,
non-union workers continue to join NUHW
through NLRB elections. Earlier
this month, 160 workers at one of California's largest nursing homes (181-bed Novato Healthcare Center in Novato,
California) voted to join NUHW. It's the latest in a string of election
victories for NUHW.
What
accounts for the difference?
Regan has chosen
a deliberate strategy of trying to grow SEIU-UHW by making it the bosses'
preferred union. Regan gives special assistance to hospital corporations by helping
them slash workers' benefits, implement lengthy no-strike clauses, impose gag
clauses, and freeze wages. In exchange, Regan asks these bosses to herd their
workers into SEIU-UHW, the bosses’ union.
So far, workers
aren't buying what Regan (and the bosses) are selling.
Why?
It ain’t
rocket science.
Most workers don't like their bosses -- typically giant
corporations squeezing profits from their hard work. Workers want fair wages, health
insurance for their kids, a good retirement plan, and dignified treatment. And
they want a union that'll help them fight for these goals.
This month's
unionization victory at Novato Healthcare Center seems to confirm
this notion. The workers launched their effort to join NUHW only after
learning about NUHW's recent strike at a nearby facility run by the same parent corporation.
"I want
some of that action," workers seemed to say.
So... a strike and
a fighting union inspired workers to stand up to their boss.
It makes
sense, right? And it represents a striking counterpoint to SEIU-UHW's strategy of purple company
unionism.
