SEIU

  • Quiet Deal Leads to Bitter Fight in Ohio Hospitals

    Author(s):
    Mischa Gaus

    Excerpt:
    Accusations of sweetheart deal-making and union busting flew thick and fast in mid-March as the Service Employees and the California Nurses Association fought over SEIU’s bid to quietly gain wall-to-wall representation at nine Ohio hospitals. . . .

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Health Care Local Charges SEIU Is Shutting Members Out of Bargaining & Organizing

    Author(s):
    Mark Brenner

    Excerpt:
    A long-simmering dispute over the direction of the Service Employees has erupted inside the union, pitting leaders of the 150,000-member United Healthcare Workers—West against top International officials. UHW President Sal Rosselli and other executive board members contend that the International is taking too much control of organizing and bargaining contracts away from local unions. . . .

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • California SEIU Leader Mounts Battle for Local Control, Union Democracy: An Interview with Sal Rosselli

    Author(s):
    Mark Brenner

    Excerpt:
    Sal Rosselli is the president of United Healthcare Workers—West, the third largest local in the Service Employees union. He resigned on February 9 from his position on SEIU’s executive committee—a top-level advisory board to International President Andy Stern....

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Trabajadores de Limpieza en Boston Dicen que el Acuerdo que Terminó su Huelga no es una Victoria

    Author(s):
    Amy Offner Traducido por Ric Urrutia y Julian Gonzalez

    Excerpt:
    El 9 de noviembre, trabajadores de la limpieza en Boston ratificaron un contrato de cinco años dos semanas después de terminar una huelga de 23 dias que atrajo atención nacional. Los administradores de la union de los trabajadores de la limpieza, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 254, dijeron que el acuerdo fue una victoria porque le ofrece seguro de salud a 1,000 mas trabajadores de tiempo parcial.

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • U-Mass unions demand funded contracts, plan walkouts

    Author(s):
    Bryan Pfeifer

    Excerpt:
    "Fund the contracts or we won't work."
    This militant message from over 200 rank-and-file members from the campus's five unions rang through the Mullins Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst November 6.

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • ‘We Set Ourselves Up to Win’ Strike Success in Santa Cruz

    Author(s):
    Paul Johnston

    Excerpt:
    On September 16, 2,200 clerical, blue collar, and professional workers in the Santa Cruz County chapter of Service Employees Local 415 walked out. Their employer was long committed to substandard wages, and now planning layoffs in response to a fiscal crisis. And there was only one solid pro-union vote on the county Board of Supervisors.
    But though the cards seemed stacked against them, the strikers won the highest raises of any comparable group of workers in the state while producing a harvest of new union activists. How did they do it?

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Politically-Connected Businessman Profits from ‘Guest Worker’ Program Braceros in Detroit?

    Author(s):
    Elena Herrada

    Excerpt:
    We should never be surprised by what campaign contributions and political connections can accomplish. In Detroit, they allowed a company to fire union workers and replace them with immigrants brought into this country under false pretenses-and then subject the new workers to horrible living conditions...

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • New York District Attorney Investigates SEIU Local 32B-J Staff "Volunteering" on Mark Green Campaign

    Author(s):
    by Freda Coodin

    Excerpt:
    On November 13 the Manhattan District Attorney subpoenaed the Service Employees International Union Local 32B-J to hand over documents, after the DA was notified of possible violations by a member and dissident leader, Paul Pamias.

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Kaiser HMO Workers Strike for Safe Staffing

    Author(s):
    by Martha Gruelle

    Excerpt:
    After a three week strike, health care workers in Denver have won an important part of their demand for adequate staffing. The 1,200 workers at Kaiser Permanente won the right to go directly to federal court to enforce language calling for safe staffing levels. "Ask any health care worker across the country," said Ernest Duran, Jr., president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7. "Safe staffing is a universal issue. Denver is the only Kaiser location in the country where workers have enforcement on staffing." Meanwhile, top Kaiser brass has agreed with the Coalition of Kaiser Unions to negotiate a first-ever national contract for Kaiser workers. Kaiser is one of the nation's largest health maintenance organizations; it claims about eight million members nationally and about 358,000 in central Colorado. Kaiser and most of the unions representing its workers launched a national "partnership" in 1997 that was arranged largely by the AFL-CIO. Through the partnership, union members were to get a voice in Kaiser's decision-making, and thereby improve quality of care. In return, the unions would promote Kaiser to the public as a "provider of choice."

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Union Leaders Suspended for Being Part of Reform Caucus

    Author(s):
    by Leah Samuel

    Excerpt:
    The top elected officers of a major section of the California State Employees Association/SEIU Local 1000 have been suspended from membership. CSEA President Perry Kenny suspended the leaders of CSEA's Civil Service Division, charging them with creating a competing union. Those suspended are members of an internal union group, the Caucus for a Democratic Union.

    Available Online:
    Yes