Two upstart health care unions in California announced a new alliance that could threaten the Service Employees International Union's primacy in that field as well as its political influence. The resulting union, combining the ranks of the California Nurses Association and the National Union of Healthcare Workers, is expected to try to lure 43,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente workers away from the SEIU, signaling an sharp increase in internal tensions in an already fractured labor movement. The new NUHW-CNA claims it will be able to negotiate stronger contracts for Kaiser's healthcare worker while improving patient care at the company's facilities.
See "Alliance of nurses, health care union could threaten powerful rival, increase labor tensions", The Washington Post, January 3, 2013