Healthcare Workers Demand SEIU Submit to Fair Elections at 77 facilities

Advocates, elected officials, and caregivers renew their call for fair elections after justice denied at 16 nursing homes

OAKLAND, Calif., April 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Healthcare workers gathered at the National Labor Relations Board today to demand the right to vote for thousands of SEIU members who want to change their union to the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), and also to demand the labor board take action to stop SEIU's campaign of intimidation against NUHW supporters.

Nursing home workers announced that SEIU's 15-month strategy of procedural delays and harassment in their workplaces had made fair elections impossible in some places, and that workers at 16 nursing homes had made the difficult decision to regroup and fight another day. NUHW's elected executive board passed a resolution in support of workers' decision.

While the labor board has issued several complaints against SEIU staff for illegally threatening workers, the board allowed SEIU to delay workers' elections for more than a year and hold votes only where SEIU officials think they can win.

"The labor board may not hold SEIU accountable for what they've done, but that doesn't mean we have to let them get away with it," said Beverly Griffith, a 33-year environmental services worker at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and a Vice President of NUHW. "The way for us to level the playing field is to move forward and win elections for the tens of thousands of healthcare workers who have stood up to SEIU's fear campaign and are ready to cast their votes and join NUHW."

After a series of landslide votes for NUHW in January, SEIU asked the labor board to proceed with a minority of elections where SEIU was confident they could win. The first three hand-picked elections happened last week, with caregivers joining NUHW in two hard-won victories and another election too close to call.

SEIU is still blocking elections for more than 11,000 workers at 58 nursing homes and 19 hospitals -- elections that a majority of workers requested.

Jackie Patrick, a caregiver at Children's Hospital of Oakland, presented a petition signed by a majority of Children's Hospital workers calling for SEIU to let them vote.

"We're ready to vote NUHW and join a strong, democratic union, but SEIU is afraid of workers having a free choice," she said. "They're blocking our election because they know they can't win a fair fight."

Another caregiver read a letter from East Bay elected officials and community leaders -- signed by four out of five Alameda County Supervisors and the Mayor of Richmond, and echoed in a separate letter from the head of the Alameda County Building Trades Council -- joining more than 100 San Francisco elected officials and community leaders in calling on SEIU to agree to fair elections.

California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) Executive Director Pat McGinnis added, "The caregivers who lead NUHW have been some of the strongest advocates for safer nursing homes in California. SEIU's effort to silence their voices and make backroom deals with nursing home operators is a threat to all they accomplished. I am proud to support these workers in taking their union back."

For a list of blocked elections and sources for the information in this story, visit www.NUHW.org/letusvote

The National Union of Healthcare Workers is California's fastest-growing union, representing caregivers in every job classification. More than 100,000 workers in hospitals, nursing homes, and Kaiser Permanente facilities have petitioned for elections to join NUHW and win a strong, democratic voice at work. | NUHW.org/one

SOURCE National Union of Healthcare Workers