We won at Children's Hospital Oakland

Yesterday we won a great victory at Children’s Hospital Oakland.

I am so proud to report that we won our re-run election over SEIU by a margin of 183 votes for NUHW to 135 votes for SEIU.

SEIU’s organizers had told NUHW supporters that they were going to “make us cry” at the ballot count. We did. We cried tears of joy at our victory.

Now we have a union that we control again—and where all union members are treated with respect—at Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Please share this important leaflet with our co-workers and welcome them to our union, NUHW.

We are the newest members of NUHW at Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Sincerely,

Ruth Kees, Clinical Lab, Children’s Hospital Oakland
National Union of Healthcare Workers    

NUHW forces SEIU to reveal their secret deal at Kaiser

Yesterday, NUHW forced SEIU to reveal their secret deal with Kaiser.

SEIU wanted to prevent workers from seeing the details of their agreement with Kaiser Permanente before healthcare workers were forced to vote on it. SEIU tried to do what they’ve done to workers at Daughters of Charity and Dignity/Catholic Healthcare West and get workers to approve giveaways to the employer without even having a chance to read them.

When NUHW got the document we printed it right away and shared the TA’s—or Tentative Agreements—with everyone. Now, SEIU has been forced to put their version of the TA’s up on the SEIU website with four additional pages.

But SEIU’s version of the TA’s raise even more questions about the changes in store for Kaiser workers. SEIU’s TA’s mention secret 2010 agreements on “On call Conversions,” “Regional Transfers” and “Job Postings” that they’ve now signed off on with management but never printed and shared with healthcare workers.

Is SEIU hiding more cuts from healthcare workers? That’s all but certain.

SEIU is a union where staff in Washington D.C. call all the shots and backroom deals are the order of the day.

SEIU's bogus ratification votes

Tomorrow, Kaiser workers will begin to vote on SEIU’s disastrous deal with its “partner,” Kaiser Permanente. When Kaiser workers cast their ballots to vote NO to this sell-out agreement, they should know one thing: SEIU’s contract ratification process is a sham.

At Daughters of Charity hospitals, we know firsthand about SEIU’s ratification misconduct. Yesterday, along with our co-workers, we filed charges against SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan for violating the SEIU and SEIU-UHW Constitutions in our recent ratification vote.

After agreeing to a contract that eliminates our pension plan, raises our healthcare premiums, and allows management to subcontract some of our jobs, SEIU refused to give us copies of the agreement and then rushed to begin our ratification votes with only nine hours advance notice. This was a clear violation of Article XIV, Section 7 of the SEIU-UHW Constitution, which requires at least three days notification before starting the ratification process.

(In our charges, we’re also challenging SEIU for wasting $5.5 million of our dues money on a phony ballot initiative and then refusing to allow us to see the deal SEIU officials cut with hospital industry leaders.)

As we said to Regan and Henry in our letter, “How can we make an informed choice when we’re not even permitted to see the actual language that would define our families’ future health benefits and our pensions? Would you vote on a deal to cut your benefits without seeing the actual language?” You can read our letter to Regan and Henry here.

At Kaiser, workers are experiencing much the same thing from SEIU. After signing the tentative agreement with Kaiser last week, SEIU officials refused to allow members to see the contract language. NUHW got a copy of the TA, and now we know why SEIU kept it a secret: it’s chock full of giveaways to Kaiser.

Follow this link to view SEIU’s agreement: http://bitly.com/SEIUgiveaways

Now SEIU is rushing to get this deal ratified before members learn about all the cuts SEIU agreed to at a time when Kaiser is making more money than ever before in its history, even though the current agreement does not expire until September 30. These cuts include a major reduction in workers’ retiree healthcare benefit, an hourly tax to pay for SEIU’s Partnership with Kaiser, and a “wellness program” that allows management to monitor workers’ health and lifestyle choices.

SEIU can’t be trusted at the bargaining table, and they can’t be trusted at the ratification ballot box. That’s just another reason why workers at Daughters of Charity and at Kaiser Permanente are organizing to get out of SEIU and join NUHW.

Please print and share this leaflet with your co-workers.

Sincerely,

Suad Husary, Respiratory Therapist, Seton Medical Center
Donald Bolt, Respiratory Therapist, St. Francis Hospital
Maria Ventura, Laboratory Technician, St. Louise Hospital
National Union of Healthcare Workers    

The takeaways that SEIU didn't want you to see

When SEIU announced its “great contract” with Kaiser Permanente, one thing was clearly missing: the actual tentative agreements.

Only by reviewing the agreement between SEIU and Kaiser can workers make up our own minds about the takeaways that SEIU have agreed to.

NUHW has obtained a copy of the tentative agreements and we’re sharing them with Kaiser workers today. We’ve also included comments that help to explain the tentative agreements. Please download and share the document, which you can find at this link: 2012 CKPU National Bargaining Tentative Agreements.

Here’s a summary of SEIU’s takeaways: 

• SEIU agreed to cuts in retiree health by agreeing that when a cap on spending is reached after 2017, benefit cuts can be implemented.  

• SEIU agreed to charge a “partnership tax” of 9 cents for every hour that we work. That is in addition to our regular union dues. Altogether, SEIU-UHW’s members will now pay at least $6 million a year in “partnership taxes.”  

• SEIU also agreed that the partnership tax can be increased “as needed.”  

• SEIU failed to decrease the wage gap between Northern and Southern California. In fact, SEIU’s agreement increases that wage gap.  

• SEIU accepted wage increases of 3%, 3%, 3% while the Kaiser agreed to wage increases of 5%, 5%, 5% with the California Nurses Association, a non-partnership union, with no takeaways, including no takeaways on retiree health.  

• SEIU gave up our right to local bargaining (See page 3 of pdf). That means that there will be no negotiating on shift differentials, work load, wage equity adjustments, job descriptions or other important worksite issues. At the end of this contract, it will have been ten years since SEIU allowed any bargaining on our local agreement.
  
  
• In this agreement, SEIU and Kaiser will make UBT’s a place where we discuss our health, including BMI, smoking, cholesterol and blood pressure levels. SEIU agreed to allow Kaiser Permanente to monitor our private health decisions, including creating health care monitors who will be paid with the increased partnership tax.

The proper response to these takeaways is to vote “No” to SEIU’s agreement with its partner Kaiser Permanente.

Ralph Cornejo, Kaiser Director
National Union of Healthcare Workers

What's SEIU hiding?

SEIU wants us to take their word for it. They say that they’ve bargained a “great contract with no takeaways.” But why should any of us believe what SEIU says?

Two years ago, SEIU and Kaiser broke the law, violated our rights and lied to us. The federal government overturned our 2010 Kaiser S + T election because of SEIU’s unlawful and dishonest conduct.

Now, SEIU officials are telling us that Kaiser workers should approve a new contract while refusing to allow even members of SEIU’s own bargaining team to so much as read it. In fact, at SEIU’s ratification votes, we’ll only be provided with what SEIU is calling “summaries” of the tentative agreements.

What’s SEIU trying to hide?

At Daughters of Charity, SEIU refused to provide members with copies of the tentative agreements and rushed through a ratification vote claiming the agreement included no takeaways. It turned out SEIU had given away Daughters of Charity workers’ defined benefit pensions, agreed to a “wellness plan” that pits worker against worker, and reduced workers’ healthcare benefits and job security protections.

At Dignity Health, formerly Catholic Healthcare West, SEIU members were told that SEIU officials had reached an agreement with management to improve their pension plan. Those workers later learned that SEIU had in fact given away their defined benefit pension plan, profiting Dignity/CHW to the tune of $217 million.

Kaiser workers have every reason to vote NO on ratification

From what little that SEIU has shared with Kaiser workers, we know that SEIU has agreed to change our retiree health benefits and to institute a “wellness program” that will let Kaiser management monitor our private lives. We also know that SEIU has given up on local bargaining and has agreed to a contract that will widen the wage gap between workers in Northern and Southern California.

With Kaiser sitting on $7 billion dollars in profits since 2009, there’s no reason for any of these takeaways. Knowing that Kaiser CEO George Halvorson gave himself a million dollar raise in 2010, Kaiser workers have every reason to demand no takeaways to retiree healthcare, a decrease in the wage gap between North and South and to exercise our right to engage in meaningful local bargaining.

We recommend that Kaiser workers vote NO on SEIU’s proposals and on any contract that we’re not allowed to see for ourselves.

Please print and share this leaflet with your co-workers and tell them to vote NO when SEIU asks us to ratify their secret deal with Kaiser.

Sincerely,

Isaiah Arvizu, OR Attendant, Kaiser South Bay
Marie Foster, Program Assistant, Kaiser San Jose
National Union of Healthcare Workers