On Thursday, February 18, SEIU-UHW members at 8 facilities across the state held spirited events to protect their patients, their union, and their future. Their ultimate goal was to demand that representatives of NUHW, a splinter group founded by former SEIU-UHW officials, stop interfering and to leave their hospitals for good. Those officials were ousted over a year ago for misusing millions in members' dues money and denying members their democratic rights.
Below is featured media coverage.
Sutter members rally in support of SEIU-UHW
Vallejo Times Herald
Members of a hospital workers union held a rally Thursday at Vallejo's Sutter Solano Medical Center over what union officials say is an attempted takeover of its membership by a splinter union group.
It was one of nine events Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) planned around the Bay Area and Los Angeles, union officials said.
California healthcare workers spar over medical facility rallies
San Francisco Bay Guardian
Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is holding a series of rallies today at eight different Bay Area medical facilities to "mark the approval of their new contract and organize to enforce it; and throw out an outside organization that is trying to undermine their progress," according to a press release.
The "outside organization" refers to the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), a young union formed early last year in the wake of a deep rift created when SEIU brought UHW workers under its representation through a trusteeship. NUHW later decried the move as a "hostile takeover."
Workers at the hospitals, which include five medical centers in the Daughters of Charity Health System, are expected to vote soon on whether they would rather remain under the SEIU-UHW umbrella or break away to join NUHW. The eight medical centers employ roughly 3,500 SEIU-UHW members. SEIU-UHW also plans to deliver an open letter to NUHW tomorrow, Feb. 19, at NUHW's offices in Emeryville.
In conversations with the Guardian about the events, representatives from SEIU-UHW and NUHW each charged that the other side was engaged in spreading lies.
Richard Gutierrez, a member of SEIU-UHW who has been working as a physical therapy aid at the Seton Coastside facility in Moss Beach for a little more than two years, said the rallies were meant to signal to management and NUHW "that we are a united front ... united to work against management."
Gutierrez said he'd been involved in contract negotiations for 18 months, but worried that the newly secured contract would be undermined by pending votes on union representation. "It's not as strong, because management can drag their tail, and say that right now we're not going to deal with it," he said.
Half Moon Bay Review
Seton Coastside Medical Center employees and SEIU-United Healthcare Workers-West members sign a pledge to their union in support of maintaining their contract with the hospital. A press conference was held in the hospital parking lot in Moss Beach on Thursday morning as a show of support by the employees for the three year contract negotiated by their bargaining committee.
La Opinion
Coverage of St. Francis Medical Center en Español
World Journal: SEIU反對NUHW
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