1000 Health Care Workers Join UHW despite the boss campaign and interference by SEIU

Daughters of Charity- St Francis Medical Center- Lynwood CA

March 26, 2008. After several attempts to organize over the last 15 years, including the vicious anti-union campaign 10 years ago when St Francis was part of Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), 600 service and skilled maintenance workers at St Francis Medical Center finally have their union. Despite an election agreement this time around the Daughters of Charity (DOC) hospital hired union busters and anti-union attorneys from Littler Mendelson, put out 14 fact sheets attacking the union, banned one organizer from the hospital, threatened organizers with arrest and challenged 40 voters in a strongly pro-union department.

To further complicate matters, three days before the vote, Registered Nurses from 1199 Ohio, under the auspices of our own national president, Andy Stern, sent a letter full of falsehoods to our tech members at St Francis denouncing UHW for allegedly colluding with the California Nurses Association (CNA) to raid SEIU hospitals in Ohio and Las Vegas. Ironically, the same wrongful tactic that CNA did in Ohio of interfering in an election where workers were seeking to have a voice was also done by our own international union leaders to workers at St Francis.

Fortunately, the boss campaign and the interference from SEIU didn’t work. The vote was 325 yes votes for unionization and 149 no votes -- a 2 to 1 margin to join UHW. Workers are now in the process of completing bargaining surveys and nominating forms to elect a bargaining team that will join members from 4 other DOC hospitals at the bargaining table.

CHW Mercy Medical Foundation Clinics - Sacramento CA

March 27, 2008. After an effort in 2006 to organize the nine clinic system, the 427 workers voted yesterday 319 yes to 57 for unionization. This despite CHW Mercy hospital members who work side by side with clinic workers receiving the same letter from 1199 Ohio that went to all SEIU-UHW members four days before the election that disparages our union and falsely alleges our union’s involvement with CNA’s behavior at CHP in Ohio. The overwhelming victory came as the result of solid worker organization and great work by an organizing committee of 55 workers.

CHW Mercy members adopted this campaign to help their clinic co-workers improve their wages and benefits and join them in having a voice in their workplace and within CHW.