Andy Stern's War on Terror: NUHW insurgents inflict more damage on SEIU

Andy Stern may be gone, but his California Civil War still rages on and, in Saturday's Washington Post, Andy used an interesting analogy metaphor comparing his union battles to the War on Terror:

"It's a tragedy in terms of how the money was spent, but a necessity in terms of preserving the organization's integrity," he said. "I don't want to analogize this, but there is not enough money you can spend in America to protect us from terrorists. And you know, sometimes you have to spend money to protect the integrity of the institution from its own version of self-righteousness and terrorism."

To compare fellow unionists to terrorists is an interesting choice of terminology.  Especially since the latest battle between the SEIU and its former local (now known as the National Union of Healthcare Workers), the purple behemoth lost another election to the union "insurgency":

Caregivers at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital have voted to leave Service Employees International Union and join the rival National Union of Healthcare Workers.

Results, announced Monday after three weeks of voting by mail, shows 408 votes for the health care union, 242 votes for SEIU, and 13 votes for no union. The local union represents more than 830 workers, including respiratory care practitioners, licensed vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants, clerical workers and others.

[snip]

The election for NUHW "is our second-biggest hospital election," said Sadie Crabtree, a spokeswoman for the union. About 2,600 Kaiser Permanente health workers in Southern California have voted to go with the new union. NUHW is working toward an election that would ask 47,000 Kaiser workers throughout the state if they want to change unions. Workers at more than 360 facilities have petitioned to join NUHW in the last 15 months, and most are still waiting for their elections, Crabtree said.

With Stern now gone, it will be interesting to see if the SEIU's new president, Mary Kay Henry, will be able to contain the Iraq NUHW insurgents.
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

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NUHW might have just popped SEIU's balloon in NorCal vote

Although the SEIU may try to claim a victory at four Bay Area nursing-homes [we're waiting to see if a press release will be issued from the purple propaganda machine], it appears the SEIU's dominance in the California health care industry is truly waning.

In fact, as Indybay notes, the SEIU organizers and staffers should be very nervous.  First, there is no clear victor in the election and, more importantly, the SEIU chose these facilities to vote first (meaning the SEIU thought it had the election won), and, lastly, the SEIU might have cheated.

Workers at four Bay Area nursing homes owned by Pratap Poddatoori made a strong showing today in an election to change their union from SEIU to the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), a member-led union established by healthcare workers after SEIU's takeover of their local union. The vote was 82 for NUHW, 85 for SEIU, and 4 votes for No Union, meaning neither side won more than half the votes cast. The labor board will schedule a runoff if there is still no majority after the issue of 13 contested ballots is resolved.

Despite coming up a few votes short of a clear victory, workers say they are proud they had a chance to vote and demonstrate their support for NUHW at facilities that SEIU officials claimed were firmly under SEIU's control. On the eve of the election, SEIU even resorted to cutting a deal with the employer to give certain workers wage increases in order to buy their votes—a violation of federal law that could result in the National Labor Relations Board overturning the election.

"We proved them wrong," said Linda Brown, a certified nursing assistant at Kyakameena Nursing Home. "SEIU wants to pretend workers don't support NUHW. But they picked us to vote first, and they still couldn't win. Our votes show how committed we are to taking back our union."

Last year, SEIU members at more than 360 healthcare facilities across California petitioned for elections to switch to NUHW, to restore democracy and accountability in their union after Washington, D.C. officials removed thousands of healthcare workers from elected union positions.

If this is the best the purple behemoth can do in turf it chose, it is in trouble.
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

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SEIU vs. NUHW Trial Ends: Jury awards purple people eaters a nibble instead of a bite

The SEIU's civil lawsuit against the former leaders of one of its largest locals is over and, while the SEIU is certain to claim a victory...it appears to be a very hollow victory.

Instead of getting the $25 million the SEIU originally sought (and after the union allegedly spent millions on the suit), the union of purple people eaters is only getting a nibble, a mere $737,850.  And, it may not even get that if NUHW is successful in appealing the jury's verdict.

According to BeyondChron:

The jury verdict is far less than the $25 million SEIU sought in the action, and reflects the jury’s conclusion that defendants should refund their January 2009 salaries, and also reimburse SEIU for directing staff to spend the month resisting trusteeship and working to form NUHW rather than on their SEIU activities.

SEIU’s trial against NUHW is now over, and the spinning of the verdict’s meaning soon begins. While SEIU will argue that the jury vindicates the union’s investing millions of dollars in time and money on the case, the trial achieved none of SEIU’s major goals.

The Lawsuit’s Goals

SEIU’s civil lawsuit against NUHW and 25 former SEIU-UHW staffers had four goals. The first three were to deplete NUHW resources by forcing its leaders to spend time and money defending themselves, send a message to hospital and home care workers facing elections that NUHW cannot not be trusted, and turn the Rosselli leadership team into a cautionary example for other SEIU locals that are considering publicly questioning President Stern’s agenda. None of these goals were achieved by the verdict.

Read the rest of BeyondChron's analysis here.

Even with the relatively minor amount awarded by the jury, it appears the NUHW leaders are planning an appeal as a press release was issued stating:

Labor and elected leaders vow to appeal limited award in SEIU’s lawsuit against union reformers

Twelve defendants cleared, but jury orders other former SEIU staff to repay salary and costs because they resisted orders from SEIU’s Washington, D.C. office

SEIU’s lawsuit against 28 union reformers came to an end today, with SEIU’s central claims abandoned, twelve defendants cleared of all charges, and a judgment that amounts to a tiny fraction of SEIU’s own legal costs.

[snip]

Attorneys for the defendants will ask the judge to set aside the jury’s verdict, and if the judge does not, they will appeal the decision to the Court of Appeals.

Perez Stern, a pro-NUHW blog had this to say:

This thing makes no sense, and I'm not just talking about my view of SEIU's failed arguments and evidence. Sure I think it's unfair, but you know, I can imagine a judgment that would have had me shrugging my shoulders and saying (as I said above) that not everything worth doing can be done within the SEIU constitution. What I think is that it isn't legally sound! How the hell can NUHW be responsible for lost dues from nursing home contracts when it wasn't created when the contracts were canceled?

An interesting case illustrating all that is wrong with Andy Stern's style of top-down unionism almost comes to an end.
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

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Is this Some Sort of April Fool's joke? SEIU's Stern calls a truce in the union wars

Given that this is April Fool's Day, we cannot be certain whether this is a joke.  So, without much commentary, we'll give you the scoop, as reported by BeyondChron, a pro-union website.

...SEIU President Andy Stern told a group of janitors yesterday that his union will immediately cease its attacks on UNITE HERE, and avoid negative campaigning in elections against NUHW. Stern acknowledged that he was “wrong when I thought we could fight NUHW and UNITE HERE without weakening our ability to organize new workers. These internal union battles have distracted us from working to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and comprehensive immigration reform.”

UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm was skeptical about Stern’s about-face, saying he “would see how this plays out on the ground.” NUHW President Sal Rosselli was even more doubtful: “it’s great that SEIU is finally withdrawing the blocking charges that prevented workers from choosing their union. But the real test is whether Stern sticks to peace if workers vote en masse to leave SEIU for NUHW.”

Andy Stern surprised his critics yesterday with an unexpected announcement that SEIU would cease trying to raid workers from UNITE HERE, and would instead stick to organizing in its core jurisdictions of building services (i.e., janitors) and health care workers. In addition, while Stern said that SEIU would vigorously compete with NUHW in California, SEIU is withdrawing all of its blocking charges so workers could freely choose between the two unions.

Stern, it should be noted has been at odds with the majority of the nation's union bosses since his breaking up of the AFL-CIO in 2005 and is currently involved in a 'scorched earth' campaign against the former leaders of one of his most powerful locals.  The former SEIU-UHW leaders have gone on to form their own union called the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) and the SEIU currently has them on trial.

Again, as stated above, we do not know if today's BeyondChron story is some sort of April Fool's joke or if, indeed, Andy Stern is calling for a cease-fire among union bosses.

In either case, we'll get you more scoop in the coming days.
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

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Andy Stern's Vietnam

Last night, we blogged on the NUHW's big victory over the purple behemoth, the SEIU, out in California, where the former SEIU-UHW leaders and their rank-and-file members trounced their former union 1652 combined votes to the SEIU's 257 votes.

Today, Politico's Ben Smith has a post up on the SEIU's loss in California.  At the end, Smith writes:

An insider explains that Andy Stern foe and UHW leader "Sal Roselli is still a very charismatic/popular leader to the rank and file. They also have a very tight old/school organizing model that is much more in touch with the members. As others have pointed out think of SEIU as the US in Vietnam...NUHW is the Viet Cong." [Emphasis added.]

If history is any indication, the battle with NUHW will not end well for the SEIU.
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"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." Thomas Paine December 23, 1776

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SEIU Rival Gives Purple Behemoth a Beat Down (Again)...

Barely a month after the Union of Purple People Eaters (aka the Service Employees International Union) was beaten (283-13) in an NLRB election by the upstart National Union of Healthcare Workers, the NUHW gave the purple behemoth another beating today.

In three-closely watched elections at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California, the NUHW trounced the SEIU with 1652 combined votes to the SEIU's 257 votes.  Here is the breakdown:

RNs:

• NUHW: 746
• SEIU: 36
• No Union: 3
• Void: 1

KPC:

• NUHW: 717
• SEIU: 192
• No Union: 7

HPC:

• NUHW: 189
• SEIU: 29
• No Union: 13
• Void: 2
• Challenge: 3

According to the pro-union Labor Notes:
 

A last-minute push by the Service Employees (SEIU) to impound the ballots and prevent the vote count was denied by the National Labor Relations Board.

The vote comes nearly one year to the day after SEIU placed its third-largest local, the dissident United Healthcare Workers-West, into trusteeship, prompting members and leaders to establish the breakaway NUHW. Within a month of the trusteeship more than 100,000 workers had filed petitions to leave SEIU and join NUHW.

But 2,300 Kaiser professionals last week were among the first to secure a head-to-head vote. SEIU has effectively stalled elections for months with blocking charges and other legal hurdles at the labor board.

NUHW’s strongest support came from nurses at Kaiser’s Los Angeles Medical Center complex, winning that unit 746 to 36. In the smaller bargaining unit of dieticians, speech pathologists, and other professionals the vote was 189 to 29. A third vote count among psychologists, therapists, social workers and others is expected later today. NUHW officials are predicting a victory there as well.

As their peasants continue their revolution, the King and Queen of Labor (SEIU's Andy Stern and Anna Burger) feeling rather squeamish this evening for instigating this uprising.

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"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." Thomas Paine December 23, 1776

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Cross-posted.

98% of Workers Vote to Give SEIU an 'Old School A** Whooping' ...

When given a choice, ninety-eight percent of workers chose to give the Union of Purple People Eaters (formally known as the SEIU) give the union a good 'old school a** whooping.'

National Union of Healthcare Workers soundly defeated the SEIU, but the margin of workers wanting no union was close. Results are not yet final.

An upstart union challenging the giant Service Employees International Union won a plurality Friday in a disputed and closely watched union vote at a Sonoma County Hospital.

But the National Labor Relations Board, which oversaw the vote at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, said it could not declare a winner because the final margin was close and 17 ballots were challenged.

"At this point, we don't have a determinative result," said Tim Peck, assistant to the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board.

During the two-day voting, the breakaway National Union of Healthcare Workers garnered 283 votes, compared to 13 for the rival Service Employees International Union.

However, 263 voters cast ballots for no union in the tightly contested race.

So out of 576 voters, the Union of Purple People Eaters (more commonly called the SEIU) only received 2% of the vote.

The message these workers have sent to the SEIU's command-and-control style of unionism was that of an 'old school a** whooping,' which should send shivers down Andy Stern, Anna Burger, and Dave Regan's spines backsides.

[For background on SEIU's 'Civil War', go here.]
 
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California Home Care Workers March on SEIU Offices

California home care workers march on SEIU's offices, protesting SEIU's alleged threats to have undocumented members deported during a recent election campaign.



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