Sacramento Business Journal
http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2010/04/05/daily63.html
NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/us/10brfs-UNIONWINSDAM_BRF.html?pagewanted=print
LATimes
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/04/federal-jury-rules-against-new-union-seeking-to-represent-healthcare-workers.html
April 9, 2010
California: Union Wins Damages
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
A federal jury in San Francisco awarded more than $1.5 million in damages to the Service Employees International Union on Friday in a lawsuit that accused a breakaway union local and its leaders of illegally undermining the S.E.I.U. The jury ordered the breakaway unit, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, to pay $724,000 and ordered several of its leaders, including Sal Rosselli, its president, to pay $30,000 to $74,000 each. The S.E.I.U., which put its large Oakland health care local into trusteeship 15 months ago, prompting the breakaway, said the verdict showed that the Rosselli group had illegally used union money and salaries to finance the breakaway. Saying it would ask the judge to overturn the verdict, Mr. Rosselli's group noted that 12 defendants had been cleared of all charges and that the jury award fell far short of the $25 million the S.E.I.U. was seeking.
April 9, 2010 | 9:20 pm
Federal jury rules against new union seeking to represent healthcare workers
A federal jury in San Francisco ruled Friday against an insurgent union fighting the giant Service Employees International Union for representation of tens of thousands of healthcare workers throughout California.
The civil case is the latest chapter in the nasty battle pitting the breakaway National Union of Healthcare Workers against the SEIU, one of the nation's largest unions.
The rival group split off from the SEIU in January 2009 amid a bitter jurisdictional dispute. The SEIU filed suit in federal court, accusing the breakaway unit and its leaders of sabotage, theft, vandalism and other offenses. The NUHW and its leader, Sal Rosselli, denied any wrongdoing.
The SEIU originally sought some $25 million in damages. Testimony in the case lasted almost two weeks in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
The federal jury, while finding in SEIU's favor, awarded a much smaller amount, though how much the NUHW is required to pay remained in dispute. The SEIU said the rival union and its officers, including Rosselli, are liable for more than $1.5 million in damages. The NUHW said the amount owed was $737,850.
The SEIU hailed the verdict in a case that exposed "a scheme to undermine the well-being of union members."
The NUHW called the lawsuit part of a "smear campaign" and said it planned to appeal.
The rival union said the case cost the SEIU $10 million in legal fees. Steve Trossman, an SEIU spokesman, called the figure "totally fabricated," adding that the legal fees were probably less than $5 million.
The NUHW has been mounting an aggressive effort to unseat the SEIU as collective bargaining representative for healthcare workers at hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other sites throughout the state. The bitter battle has split union ranks nationwide.
-- Patrick J. McDonnell