Hospital vote pits upstart union against colossus
A five-year drive for unionization at the Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in California culminates today and tomorrow in a bitterly contested vote for representation. The vote pits the health sector giant Service Employees International Union (SEIU) with over 2 million members nationwide, against the upstart National Union of Healthcare Workers, a breakaway faction of the SEIU that currently has zero dues-paying members. The contest between the two unions has been bitter since the inception of the NUHW, and will continue in several other California location over the next few months. The SEIU has called the NUWH a bankrupt disaster and says that workers will be much better off with an established, resource-heavy union. Conversely, the NUWH accuses the SEIU of being an un-democratic monopoly colossus, power-hungry enough to cooperate with management against the NUWH. The unions have refused to meet, and the hospital has accused the NUWH of employing coercive tactics.
See "Hospital vote pits upstart union against colossus", Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2009