Federal Lawsuit Filed to Stop Home Care Cuts in California
SEIU-UHW has joined with individuals needing critical assistance to remain safely in their homes, advocates for seniors and people with disabilities, and other unions whose members provide care, in filing suit in federal court to prevent impending cuts in the "In-Home Supportive Services" program, known as IHSS. The cuts, which are scheduled to take effect on November 1, will affect at least 140,000 Californians who rely on these services, with 40,000 people losing assistance entirely. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit will ask the federal court to issue an injunction to stop the IHSS cuts and avert what Margaret Baran, executive director of the San Francisco IHSS Consortium, said will be a "humanitarian disaster."
SEIU-UHW Wins Protections for Kaiser On-Call Workers
In a positive move, Kaiser management notified SEIU-UHW that they are putting on hold the position eliminations of more than 200 on-call workers until further discussions with the union. This is an important victory for these workers because management had previously taken the position that it would sever their employment as of Monday, October 12. On-call workers do not have redeployment rights under the contract.
"The leadership of SEIU-UHW has now gotten Kaiser Permanente to put the elimination notices for the on-calls on hold," said Fay Linton, who works at Kaiser Walnut Creek and serves on the elected bargaining team. "These workers can continue to do the work they were hired to do and help Kaiser and our patients. This is a very encouraging sign from Kaiser and a strong first step toward our ultimate goal: protecting every Kaiser job."
PERB Rejects NUHW's Phony Charges at Hazel Hawkins
The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) dismissed NUHW's objections to the recent election at Hazel Hawkins Hospital, where workers voted decisively to stay with SEIU-UHW. The charges were so baseless that the PERB unequivocally rejected them at the pre-hearing stage. After the election in June, with the distraction of NUHW gone, management could no longer stall in bargaining and members at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital were able to win a new three-year contract that immediately improved their wages, benefits and voice on the job. Mary Agredano GarcÃa, an Activities Assistant and SEIU UHW steward said "It's good news for the workers at Hazel Hawkins that the Board dismissed NUHW's ridiculous objections to our election. We are focused on training our stewards and enforcing our contract. It's time for NUHW to realize we don't want them here. Leave us alone."
Related - Hazel Hawkins Workers Approve New Contract »
Workers at Centinela Call Out Bogus Decertification Attempt
First, NUHW spent several weeks sending outsiders to harass workers at Centinela hospital to sign a decertification petition. Then, knowing they had little real support among the workers, immediately after they finally filed a decertification petition with the NLRB, they filed a charge asking to block any election from moving forward. "First, our former leaders left us without a contract for more than two years. Then they criticized Arbitrator Collins' ruling on our new contact which includes retro increases, ban on subcontracting and arbitration on staffing. Now, they want to distract us from focusing on our next SEIU-UHW contract. NUHW--enough is enough," said Debra Clark, a worker at Centinela. With their questionable filing, NUHW has shown that while they know they can't win an election, they're willing to harm every worker in the hospital and play into Prime Healthcare's hands for their own purposes.
