This Labor Day, 43,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente hospitals in California--members of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW)--are celebrating their 65-year history of making the nation's largest healthcare provider one of the best places to work and receive care.

While SEIU-UHW members have enjoyed the benefits of their 2% April raise for five months, NUHW members at Kaiser are going to trial to try and get the raise -- a process that will likely take years with no guarantee they will be successful!

Worse, the Southern California professionals who switched to NUHW are reporting being told by Kaiser that they will not be getting the 3% raise that all SEIU-UHW members will receive in October.

In just two weeks, the majority of SEIU-UHW members at Kaiser in 16 areas representing well over a third of 43,000 members have signed cards committing to support SEIU-UHW over the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) and protect their newly-won contract in the mail-ballot election that begins September 13. More facilities are reaching majority every day! Members like Kaiser Walnut Creek chief steward Alisha Blinks are organizing to be a more powerful union than ever before.

• See the column she wrote for the Contra Costa Times this week »
• Read more and share the good news »

How the union election for Kaiser workers affects members and our families

1. Our 9% Raises, Free Family Healthcare, PSP Bonuses, and Job Security Are At Stake.

By standing together in SEIU-UHW, Kaiser employees won a strong contract during a tough economy. We locked in these standards until October 2013.

Last week, Kaiser Downey worker Julian Gomez asked Sal Rosselli, leader of NUHW, "if we vote for your group are we going to keep our contract, benefits and wages or are you going to get us a better contract, and why should we risk anything to go out into uncharted waters with you?"

He responded that he would try his best but he couldn't guarantee anything and it would be a struggle.

Watch the video »

Why are we having an election?

On the heels of winning the recent agreement, another union--the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW)--filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to decertify SEIU-UHW as the union representing healthcare workers at Kaiser. NUHW is run by former officials of SEIU-UHW who were removed from office for misusing millions of dollars in members' dues and found guilty in federal court in April 2010. (Links to court findings at end.)

For more than 65 years, SEIU-UHW members at Kaiser have set the standard of living for healthcare workers and improved care at facilities across California.

In June 2010, SEIU-UHW members at Kaiser approved a new two-year collective bargaining agreement with Kaiser that:

• Guarantees 9% raises and our PSP bonuses
• Protects all benefits including no healthcare cost increases through 2013, and
• Provides the strongest job security protections in the U.S. hospital industry.

All this won in the worst economy in 70 years.

On a conference call with Kaiser employees August 3, Kaiser Southern California President Ben Chu confirmed that NUHW members at Kaiser are not automatically eligible to receive Performance Sharing Program (PSP) bonuses. The PSP adds thousands of dollars to Kaiser workers' income each year.

An open letter from Kaiser San Jose Leaders

We are SEIU-UHW stewards and leaders at Kaiser San Jose and the majority of us are more committed than ever to defend our contract by ensuring that SEIU-UHW remains our union. We condemn the efforts of a small minority of stewards at our facility to destroy our contract--a great contract that we all worked hard to win and are proud of. As your elected leaders, we vow never to abandon our members or our contract as they have done, but rather to stand beside our SEIU-UHW brothers and sisters at Kaiser facilities across California to protect all our hard-won gains.

A year ago this week, Kaiser announced it was cutting 1,700 jobs. Fast forward: today, every affected worker who wanted to find a new position and keep working is doing so.

How is that possible? Our contract, which guarantees each member's full salary and benefits for one year if our job is ever cut and provides education and retraining in order to transition workers affected by job elimination into new positions. Without this provision in our contract, these 1,700 workers would be without a job today--like so many healthcare workers at other hospitals.

SEIU-UHW Members Gear Up to End NUHW's Threat to our Contract, Raises, Benefits, and Job Security

NUHW, the organization of former SEIU-UHW leaders who were removed from our union for misusing our dues, called for an election that would force SEIU-UHW members to re-bargain the great contract we just won. 43,000 SEIU-UHW members at Kaiser will now have the opportunity to vote to defend the contract we ratified by an overwhelming 94% approval.

NUHW Still Won't Agree to Election for 43,000 Kaiser Workers

OAKLAND - The National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) is still refusing to agree to a union election for 43,000 Kaiser workers to go forward in the next 60 days, even though it was their organization that filed for the election June 29 with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

This Thursday, July 22 is the deadline set by the Labor Board for NUHW, the organization of former SEIU-UHW leaders who were removed from our union for misusing our dues, to agree to hold the election they requested to take away our union and force 43,000 members to re-bargain the national agreement we just won at Kaiser.

Last week, with SEIU-UHW members from across the state as witnesses, the Labor Board proposed an agreement to hold an election within 60 days. SEIU-UHW signed the agreement. NUHW refused.