National Union of Healthcare Workers

National Union of Healthcare Workers
Founded 2009
Key people Sal Rosselli, President
Office location Oakland, CA
Country United States
Website http://www.nuhw.org

National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) is an independent, democratic labor union based in Oakland, California, that represents 11,000 healthcare workers in California. It was formed in 2009 after a split with the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West.

History

NUHW was founded in 2009 by former members of United Healthcare Workers-West, a local of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), after the local was placed in trusteeship by a federal judge. The leaders of SEIU-UHW at that time, including President Sal Rosselli, resisted efforts by SEIU International to control the local's democratic decision-making process against the will of its members and in violation of the local's constitution. The local's leadership (Roselli) and the international leadership were at odds over the proposed removal of 65 000 long term healthcare workers into the LA based local 6434 run by the corrupt Tyrone Freeman.[1][2][3] SEIU International responded by putting the local into trusteeship. Rosselli et al resisted and were later required to repay SEIU for their salaries for their final few days as SEIU employees.

Following SEIU International's implementation of the trusteeship, SEIU-UHW rank-and-file leaders voted to form NUHW, and thousands of member soon voted to leave SEIU-UHW and join NUHW. To date, 9,438 healthcare workers have left SEIU-UHW for NUHW. None have left NUHW to become SEIU-UHW members.

In January 2013, NUHW affiliated with the California Nurses Association.[4] The CNA is a trade union representing about 85,000 nurses and healthcare workers in California and other states. A hearing is scheduled in January 2016 to determine whether CNA has violated the affiliation agreement. CNA top officials are determined to end the affiliation against the wishes of NUHW and CNA members. The affiliation can only be dissolved by mutual consent of the two unions.

Membership

NUHW has won elections to represent 11,000 healthcare workers in California.[5] The union lost an election in 2010 to represent more than 40,000 Kaiser Permanente workers in California, who are still SEIU members. In July 2011, an administrative law judge threw out those results and ordered a new election.[6] SEIU prevailed in the second election, held in April 2013.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Former SEIU union local president convicted of embezzlement". L.A. Now. January 28, 2013. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  2. ↑ Randy Shaw (January 28, 2009). "SEIU Places UHW in Trusteeship". Beyond Chron. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  3. ↑ Mark Brenner (January 28, 2009). "SEIU Launches Takeover of United Healthcare Workers-West". Labor Notes. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  4. ↑ http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/01/cna-and-nuhw-to-formally-affiliate.html
  5. ↑ http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2010/01/25/daily26.html
  6. ↑ http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2011/7/19/labor-board-could-call-new-union-election-for-43500-kaiser-workers.aspx
  7. ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-early/seiu-wins-again-at-kaiser_b_3219897.html

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, November 05, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.