Op-ed: "Stall Tactics" at Memorial

Will management ever grow up? Without SEIU to do their dirty work they are now wasting money, credibility and only guaranteeing fierce resistance from workers, the community and it's leaders, media, etc.

Management whines about election results; Empire Report hits back hard

Wow, what a great piece of writing! Empire Report's Michael Aparicio rips management's allegations up one side and down the other with such ease and finesse. Get ready for a good belly laugh! Management's allegations are as hilarious as they are pitiful. Memo to management: the harder you try to fight the will of the workers the harder the community will fight back, and we way out-number you!

Tell Memorial Hospital to Drop Their Objections, Respect Workers' Decision

So, what can you do to voice your opinion about this disappointing but expected turn of events? You can attend the rally tomorrow. Below is the email I received from Steve Sidawi, union organizer for Memorial workers.

Urgent Action Tomorrow: Tell Memorial Hospital to Drop Their Objections, Respect Workers' Decision

Where: Outside Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital

When: Wednesday, December 30, 11:45 a.m.

We have just learned that Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital management is attempting to get the historic union election overturned. SRMH has filed outrageous "objections" charging that NUHW and community supporters engaged in conduct "preventing employees from exercising their choice." Among the absurdities they are alleging are surveillance, interrogation, videotaping employees, and obstructing the entrance to hospital meeting rooms. They also allege that the NLRB created confusion by using different "font styles" on the ballot. Management's objections are especially insulting because they are an implicit attack on the right of community supporters to advocate for a fair election.

See you there tomorrow!

Guess who's contesting the NUHW victory at Memorial?

For once it's not the Zombies. Nor it is the Memorial Bridge folks with their close-but-who-really-cares second place finish. It's the workers "best friend"...management! These are the folks who laid off 200 employees in February, just days after the trusteeship, and then hired them back at cut throat rates, with no health insurance, vacation time, or sick time. I'm just sayin'...lest we forget.

Memo to management: you lost, get over it. The workers voted and once the NLRB resolves the 17 contested votes your job is to either work with NUHW or go back to business as usual.

NLRB moves quick-ish to resolve Memorial contested ballots

Tim Peck of the NLRB stated:

We sent letters to both contenders to see if the parties would resolve their ballot challenge differences voluntarily with a requirement that they reply on or before Dec. 29. There will be no certification of the election until ballot challenge issues are resolved.

which is must quicker than I expected, especially since the Zombies, with their disgraceful 13 votes didn't want to do the right thing for their organization, their dues paying members or anyone else involved in this slow-motion train wreck and just throw in the towel after the beating the received Friday night.

This just in: someone from SEIU can't see how election loss might have happened.

As a comment to my previous entry shows, despite my best efforts to educate and enlighten, some people just can't be bothered with reading and thinking before commenting.

Yes, and no doubt NUHW will be able to negotiate a superior contract at SRMH, what with the overwhelming support represented by the vote of 283 of 675 members of the bargaining unit (42%), the opposition of 293 members (43%, counting 13 who voted for UHW, 263 who voted "no union" and 17 who cared enough to vote but whose votes were challenged by NUHW--think they are now NUHW supporters, whatever they were originally?), and 99 who didn't care enough to vote. How do the contracts NUHW has managed to negotiate so far stack up to the ones SEIU is boasting about? Hard to say BECAUSE THEY HAVEN'T GOTTEN ANY.

Oh gentle reader who hides in the shadows and does not bother to keep with current events (Victory for Memorial workers, NUHW, patient care, community, etc) where do I start picking apart your woefully under-informed comment?

NUHW's ability to negotiate a good contract has nothing to do with how many workers voted for them. It's the bargaining team and the contracts bargained by the old UHW, better known as NUHW, that will be responsible for bargaining a superior contract.

I'm not sure where how you arrived at the 293 figure, but to assume the challenged ballots are all SEIU or all NUHW is absurd.

The 17 ballots were challenged by the Labor Board since eligibility was suspect. As such they remain unopened and beyond the reach of either union and the Memorial Bridge chrometophobes. Perhaps they were hired after the election, or are members of management. Their eligibility will be worked out by the Board and Memorial management, not SEIU or NUHW.

As for the 99 who didn't vote, I'm sure you'll agree part of them were on vacation, laid off, home ill, or had some other reasonable excuse for not voting.

The 283 out of 576 votes NUHW received brings them to 49.1%. Another 6 votes brings them to the 50%+1 threshold necessary to win an absolute majority.

Sierra Spartan at ¡Adiós, Andy! put it best: "Those 17 ballots cannot by themselves make NUHW lose the election, but they can prevent NUHW from avoiding a runoff, and as such they can also prevent any results from being certified by the NLRB," and more importantly: "In order to prevail in that scenario, all NUHW would have to achieve is 6 votes out of those 17 challenged votes cast (roughly 35%); by the same token, in order to force runoff, the "no union" slate has to get 12 out of the 17 challenged votes (70.5%)."

The good things are SEIU is out of the game and they have wasted $1-2 million for 13 votes. Hard to explain to members why a dues increase is needed when cash is burned that quickly.

Zombies break arm slapping themselves on the back

In a vaguely worded article that doesn't cite any references, the Zombies submit their "but in our reality we are winning" press release. If any reader can cite an example of the Zombies bargaining an improvement over a previous please send the link my way. Sure they've bargained at lease one new contract for a new bargaining unit but initial contracts are by default better than what was available before. You'll notice the only good press the Zombies get is when they write the article. As time goes on there are fewer and fewer credible authors willing to tarnish their good name or publishing organization supporting the crumbling the Zombie empire. I'm sure we can look forward to a similarly (if not identically) worded UHW Report, spouting all kinds of fake "good news".

NUHW crushes SEIU/Memorial media round up

Here is a round up of the media coverage that has been published since I witnessed the edge-of-my-seat vote count Friday evening. 

I was busy hanging with the purple and yellow folks this weekend. No, not the Zombies (not ever), but rather the Lions club of which I am a member. Their colors are also yellow and purple like SEIU. However, unlike SEIU We Serve. We set politics aside, and in the context of a service club, we do what is best for everyone, regardless.

Anyway, my mind is wandering after an exhausting weekend so I'm gonna turn in. I'm taking "Mrs. Söze" on a li'l road trip tomorrow in honor of our 10 years together, so I'll be back in the office (read: on the couch) Tuesday morning. In the mean time, enjoy the blogs I look to: ¡Adiós, Andy! and Stern Burger with Fries for breaking news on Zombie stupidity.

UPDATE (12/24): Upstart Union Deals Blow to SEIU, Raises Prospects for Future Fights (In These Times)

UPDATE (12/21): NUHW Trounces SEIU 283-13 to Win Santa Rosa Election (Beyond Chron)

UPDATE (12/21): National Consequences for Memorial Hospital Union Vote (Empire Report)

NUHW is Decisive in Santa Rosa, SEIU Tries to Postpone Defeat (Labor Notes)
 
NUHW in Santa Rosa: a David versus two Goliaths (Daily Kos)

Breakaway union claims victory in Memorial Hospital vote (Press Democrat)

Upstart union wins a plurality in Sonoma County hospital vote (L.A. Times)

Victory for Memorial workers, NUHW, patient care, community, etc

First, the vote count.
Total votes:       576 out of 675 (85.3%) eligible
 

NUHW:              283 ( 49.1%)
 

No union:          263 ( 45.7%)
 

SEIU:               13 (  2.3%)
 

Contested votes:    17 (  3.0%)

 

Voided votes:        1 (  0.0%)
 

NUHW to SEIU votes: 21.8 to 1



NOTE: A few of the numbers corrected above based on comment below.

So as you can see we DESTROYED SEIU. And by "we" I mean mostly not me. The Zombies spent hundreds of thousands of dues paying members money to lose, and lose badly. The real work was done by eligible-to-vote workers and NUHW staff. The Zombies helped out a bit too what with their constant negative campaigning that backfired, shooting themselves in the foot on multiple occasions, gaining widespread contempt from everyone, and so on.

So as you can see not even the mighty Zombie/Memorial management war machine can defeat an upstart union that has widespread support and the backing of the workers.

What SEIU did wrong. They:

• abandoned workers in January
• didn't return numerous phone calls after the trusteeship
• only showed interest in Memorial after worker selection of NUHW
• refused to negotiate ground rules for campaigning
• earned bad press in:

• Empire Report
• Beyond Chron
• KRCB-FM (PBS)
• KSRO-AM
• Green960
• L.A. Times
• North Bay Business Journal
• Press Democrat
  

• were condemned by the North Bay Labor Council
• disregarded the previous guide for organizing at Catholic healthcare facilities "Respecting the Just Rights of Workers Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Union"
  
• colluded with Memorial management
• aggravated workers with repeated phone calls, house visits, and disrespected them with repetitive, often cartoon-ish mailers that said nothing about how SEIU would be a better choice
• descended on Santa Rosa with 400 staffers to annoy 600+ workers, hence the 263 "Neither" votes
• abused the legal system to delay the vote & frustrate the workers
• and so on
  

What NUHW did right. THEY

• built a relationship with the workers
• ignored numerous taunts from the Zombies
• secured support from the workers, community leaders, politicians, clergy, the labor council, numerous columnists, bloggers
• choose to take the high road
• and so on

What can workers, community member, politicians, and so on take from this election campaign and its awe-inspiring result? Bigger does not always mean better.

Or, if you prefer (as I do) my own creed: "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." Applied to this battle for worker representation: Just because you, SEIU, can outspend, outstaff, and outpublicize NUHW with dues payers money, out of state staff and cakes doesn't mean you should. All SEIU staff and lackeys involved in this campaign, from Megalomaniac Stern on down to the UHW Chicken Lady and ought to be ashamed of their behavior, the money they wasted and the credibility they've squandered.

And now just for fun: a music quote from my favorite band Tool's most energetic song Ticks & Leeches:

Is this what you wanted?
Is this what you had in mind?
'Cause this this is what you're getting.
I hope you choke!

Judgement day is here. Everybody wave goodbye to the Zombies!

First off, KPFA interviews Nancy Timberlake and Jack Nicholson. It's good to hear the support for NUHW is still very strong and SEIU is, as usual, reeling from mass rejection from workers, politicians, clergy, community members, me, etc.

Next Labor Notes details the changes in SEIU that brought about the trusteeship, abandonment of workers at Memorial and a miserable failure at shuffling workers against their will and without a vote. I'm glad I jumped off this sinking ship long ago.

Finally, the New York Times Press Democrat announces the election for Memorial workers. Following this election will keep me busy but I can't wait for the vote count. When I know you'll know.

L.A. Times weighs in on Memorial election

It's been a while since I've seen anything from the L.A Times about what's going on "way up north" here in Sonoma county, but the knock-down, drag-out fight for unionization at Memorial is getting plenty of attention.
Funniest part of the article: "We think these workers would be much better off with a union that has resources, that has members, that has a track record" says Steve Trossman, SEIU media lackey. This man doesn't wear horse blinders he has a welding mask!

Nothin' to see here folks, move along

In response to yesterday's letter to the editor of the New York Times Press Democrat Jo Sandersfeld, VP of Mission Integration (what does she integrate?) penned this denial of wrongdoing letter to the editor. As far as I am aware they've said very little to defend themselves, which makes me suspicious and yet it speaks to management's collusion with the Zombies. (Scroll down to near the bottom of the letters.)

Memorial to follow NLRB guidelines, makes no mention of USCCB guide

You heard it from Ashley Furness on the North Bay Business Journal first: "We’ll be adhering to the process outlined in the National Labor Relations Act" But how does that square with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) guide to Memorial hospital Respecting the Just Rights of Workers Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Union? Just sayin'.

Outspoken worker Don Fugate tell it like it is, knocks the Zombies out cold

Dear friends and co-workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital,

My name is Don Fugate. I have worked with and amongst you all for the past seventeen and a half years at SRMH. The past six of those years I have been actively involved in organizing a union for the service and technical staff here at SRMH. I began this journey because I sincerely believed, and still do today, that by all of us coming together and speaking with one voice that we could make a positive difference at SRMH. A difference for ourselves, for each other, for our patients, and for our community whom we serve everyday. That, by coming together, we could revitalize our hospital with the true spirit of the four core values that the founding members of the Sisters of St.Joseph originally committed too. The values of Dignity, Excellence, Justice, and Service are noble and worthy values and ones that we do our best to practice daily during our varies duties throughout the hospital. Unfortunately, over the years I have been there it seems as if the corporatization of the healthcare industry has made it more and more difficult to meet these worthy values. Cuts in staffing, pay, benefits, and a lack of respect for our ideas and concerns from Management has, much like how a river can form a canyon or chasm given enough time, eroded our commitment to these values. Frustration, anger, stress, and anxiety seems to have replaced our beloved values. But by joining together, I know we can change this trend! We can revitalize our workplace, and in the process our selves and our dedication to the values that have made Memorial Hospital the leading Healthcare provider in Sonoma County.

That's why I decided to become an employee organizer and joined many of our fellow co-workers on the Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital Organizing Committee. A committee founded by Memorial employees to create a union here at SRMH. When we began this process we decided to organize with SEIU Local 250. Local 250 would later merge with Local 399 and become SEIU-UHW West. We organized with SEIU for five years, until last January  when the leadership of the International placed UHW under trusteeship. After trusteeship we heard nothing from them about our organizing effort here at SRMH. Some time passed without word. During this time we were contacted by organizers from the newly created union, NUHW. These were the organizers for SEIU who quit in disgust because of the trusteeship. They told us their side of what happened at SEIU-UHW and the trusteeship. And they then offered to continue organizing with us if we chose to do so. We decided, in fairness, to contact SEIU-UHW to hear their side and perspective, and to ask if they were still interested in organizing with us. We placed several calls over the course of three to four weeks asking someone, anyone, with SEIU to return our calls. All we received was silence. It became apparent to many of us that organizing the workers at SRMH simply was no longer a priority for SEIU-UHW. In fact we just recently learned from Mr. Fred Ross Jr., who was a leader within SEIU at the time, that the decision to pull support from the campaign at SRMH had been made by the leadership of SEIU in August of 2008. Fully six months prior to the trusteeship which didn't happen until January of 2009! So we came together as a committee and discussed our options. They were: 1.) Continue to wait for a reply from SEIU, 2.) accept NUHW's offer to organize with them, or 3.) Quit altogether and walk away from a five year effort. After much deliberation, and the realization that we had been abandoned by SEIU, we voted unanimously to accept NUHW's offer. We knew them, they had the experience and dedication to create and forge this new union into a great organization that would be dedicated to the working men and women who made up its membership. So powerful a vision it is that the organizers are volunteers. These experienced and well educated people could have simply gone out and gotten jobs somewhere else. But they believe so strongly in the visionary mission of NUHW, to bring justice to the workplace and to the workers, that they have volunteered their time and own resources to help us organize. It has truly been inspiring for me to be a witness to their hard work, and dedication to this cause. Truly, these people embody the values of Dignity, Excellence, Justice, and Service. That is why I'm proud to say that on December 17th and 18th, I'm voting for NUHW! Join me in voting NUHW, and let's be the leaders that will reshape and revitalize our hospital, ourselves, and our commitment to our core values.

Sincerely and respectfully,

Don Fugate

Environmental Services Rep.

SRMH

Opinion: Memorial Vote

Long time resident Tony White gives a from-the-outside-in perspective of the unionization effort at Memorial. (Scroll down to near the bottom of the letters.)

Voice your support for Memorial workers

Send them a little 'lectronic love by clicking on the image below.

Memorial management shows it's true colors

What we all knew was going on behind closed doors is now exposed to the light of day. I suggest reading Michael Aparicio's article on Empire Report, then reading below for my own color commentary on the Zombies new bestfriends.

It's very telling of the Zombies cozy association with hospital management, the carte blanche access they enjoy and allegations they have almost thrown in the towel before the vote even began.

Here are the documents referenced in Michael's article.

First is management's voter guide. I thought the Zombies giving us homecare workers voting advice was bold and stupid but this takes the cake!

They start out using good reasoning by encouraging their workers to get as much "real, factual, honest information -- as possible" but then they blow it by offering paid attendance to "voluntary information sessions". These are the same sessions that the FEOC, the Fair Election Oversight Committee was barred from overseeing. If management is acting in an above-board manner then there is no reason for them to hide behind closed doors. Whatever they are stating in secret, it must be really good, good enough to pass up transparency and the chance to get the heat off them and cause a little union in-fighting!

As for "treating one another with the highest level of Dignity and Justice"...ask Melissa Bosanco, one of 200 workers laid off and then rehired in a relief position with no health insurance, vacation time, sick time or voice how their Dignity initiative is working out for her. Can you believe that: she works at a hospital and there is no offer for health insurance. I wonder if she gets an employee discount.

So when it comes to making an informed decision, Memorial management really means vote no union so they run rough-shod over their employees.

How dumb do they think their workers are? Do they really think their employer or any employer is anything but viciously anti-union? Can anyone cite any employer how has welcomed a union, ever?

It gets worse; read on. As shown below they go from nearly neutral to kiss-off-your-rights-and-voice by voting Neither union.

They're quite bold here.

"That is why when it comes time for you to cast your ballot, we hope you decide that your best choice is to vote for keeping your personal, direct voice, which means marking the ballot "Neither."

Finally, they seem to have come to their senses momentarily. Just kidding! Now they want to make sure you don't blow your chance to vote Neither!

Zombies anger every one, loses it's way, almost backed out of Memorial election

Randy Shaw of BeyondChron writes a good piece about how 2009 should have been labor's year to make substantial progress, but sadly the house of labor is in need of substantial repair. We all had such high hopes in January (EFCA, healthcare reform, etc), most of which were dashed due to the greed and reckless spending spree of Dictator for Life Andy Stern. The good news: it looks like the Zombies' fate is sealed at Memorial. They intended to pull out of the election last week, but decided to reverse course and continue management's work of busting union NUHW. Oh Zombies, will you ever understand human nature?

`Tis The Season...

...to kick the Zombies to the curb. Go forth and vote your conscience, vote for hope, vote a brighter future.

 

Enjoy your new union, your homecare siblings will join the party in October 2011.

Zombies offer bribe to vote UHW...

...in cake form. Can you believe this nonsense and desperation? Ugh, more of my dues money misspent chasing a Zombie dream that will never be. NUHW staff and workers tell me that Memorial workers scrapped off the all but the NUHW, or threw the whole cake out. At 2 cakes per department, that's a lot of wasted food!

This cake, and several others like it, mysteriously slipped past Memorial security guards at the hospital. If this cake and several known Zombie staffers made it into the hospital unscathed how else might Zombie staff be terrorizing workers around the hospital? Seems like the Zombies snuck a written message past the Sergeant Schultz style security guards, which is a violation of the hospitals own selectively enforced and possibly unwritten security policy. Lax security or sympathetic-to-the-Zombies employer? You make the call.

50-minute rally spawns a really weak mailer

Yesterday, SEIU did what it does best: makes a lot of noise but doesn't say anything of substance. At their rally, the chants were the very popular "We are the union/The mighty, mighty union" and "Hey-hey, ho-ho/NUHW has got to go". To those familiar with union chants the second one is popular because of it's flexibility: replace NUHW with whatever entity is the subject of the chanting and you have an easy-to-pickup rhyme. Even people completely unfamiliar with the situation can fit right in, which is especially useful when none of the people who got off of 2 huge buses rented by the Zombie was employed by Memorial. Among them was a handful of Sonoma county IHSS (homecare) workers, including the Zombie UHW Chicken Lady Maire Melchor, and human-megaphone Mark Nelson, both shown below.

Photo credits: Marie's image is from a frame I pulled out of the Shine a Light video; Mark is on Flikr. Both the video of her and the photo of him were submitted by the Zombies.

It angers me to no end that the Zombies are wasting the dues money of my fellow members and this rally is the latest showcasing of their arrogance and endless spending spree. Two sizable charter buses, 100 + anybody-but-Memorial-employees in attendance, an unknown number of hotel rooms, staff wages, food, gas, whatever bribes were offered and so on for a 50 minute "look at me" rally. Our very own Reefah Joseph was there, looking lost as usual. This really is a mini-Fresno battle.

UPDATE: I asked the folks at Coach 21 (the charter bus company) how many people can fit on a bus: 56. Hmmm so let's do a little math 56 x 2 = 112, but the Zombies claim over 250, which leaves at least 138 or another 2 full buses plus change. Where did they come from? I was there and I saw the a bus unload and 2 buses load up the whole circus. I know at least one Zombie staffer, IHSS (homecare) field rep Reefah Joseph was there so I suspect a number of the circus clowns were SEIU staff who were required to attend.

I'm sure you see the irony, and desperation, of the Zombies using the number 250:  it's nostalgic, and more importantly it's purposely confusing. And what is this "before we vote", "help us win a first contract" and "protect our jobs" nonsense? Do the Zombies really think they have any traction with the workers? The man to the left of the "Don't Be Fooled" sign with the sunglasses holding a sign high above his head seems to be the only one clutching at this long dead belief. I'm sure the Zombies are only interested in protecting their own jobs.

Zombie UHW knows full well why no one is under contract nearly a year after forming. The NLRB used to be in their back pocket but as the NLRB tires of SEIU's abuse of the legal system and their blocking charges fall one by one, the Zombies will slink away to lick their wounds and ponder where they went wrong. If only they had the ability to look at themselves from the outside in.

Recent NUHW/Zombie union mailers: compare and contrast

I've been waiting a while for this one folks: a chance to compare a mailer from both NUHW and the Zombies that hit mailboxes at nearly the same time.

Being the nice guy that I am I'll let the Zombies go first. Notice their tact of creating fear in the hearts and confusion in the minds of the very workers the seek to represent. What the lack in a credible attack on NUHW they make up for it by appealing to a reader's sense of fear. Nary a word about the Zombies' plans for improving workers lives, or advocating for patient care. It's been 6+ years: they should have something on the shelf by now. Sadly they frequently trot out the same weak and lame arguments. Are they clutching at straws? Yeah, I think so. This approach is suspiciously similar to the farm worker representation battle between the Teamsters and the United Farm Workers (UFW) back in the 1970s. Guess who was the 800 pound gorilla and who was the underdog that won. Hint: it's the one with the more fitting name.

Let's recall the 2nd comment left on the "Garbage in, garbage out" blog entry.

"As of October 2008, the 747 has been involved in 122 incidents, including 48 hull-loss accidents, resulting in 2,850 fatalities. The 747 has been in 35 hijackings which caused 882 fatalities."

(The VW Bug is a far better engineered and tested vehicle but this it not an automotive blog.)

The number of casualties for UHW is far greater. They certainly have gone out of their way to destroy themselves, their alliances, sell out their members and anger their many supporters.

The four bulleted points shown above were discussed in the "Garbage in, garbage out" blog entry.

Have you had you daily dose of the Zombies hyperbole, fear mongering and outright lies? You're not the only one!

*         *          *

What do you say to trading in this take for a look at NUHW's angle on unionization? They don't attack SEIU; rather they offer hope and solid ideas for furthering the interests of workers and patients. They don't use exaggeration, make silly comparisons, or distort the truth. Also, they show pictures of the workers' peers which adds a sense of credibility and plausibility the Zombies never had and never will. Dang! I wish I could vote for NUHW.

Memorial management continues to follow Zombie's lead...

... by angering everyone, lying through their teeth and backing itself into a corner. It appears they are beyond reason despite support from community, the Church, local politicians, and so on.

Another former SEIU staffer points the spotlight on the Zombies, Memorial management

Fred Ross Jr, a former SEIU staffer, now employed by IBEW 1245 give a brief history of his work for SEIU and the series of events that led him to abandon the Titanic-esque disaster that is SEIU. It's interesting how in real life and the movie people on the top of the social structure are sure everything is going to be fine while the folks on the bottom see the situation for what it is, grab their family and head for the lifeboats. I am sure Captain Stern is too proud of his sinking ship to jump off, he's already sent 2 people to die on his behalf.

In his open letter he describes how SEIU decided well ahead of the trusteeship to stop organizing. From there is goes downhill pretty quickly.

Southwest Clinic expands, Memorial profits, workers still lose

It's always good to have another perspective on the fiasco at Memorial. Hats off to frequent commenter Don F. who tells me that Memorial has another revenue stream: the leasing of 2,500 square feet of office space to Southwest Community Health Center. Good for Southwest, good for Memorial, but still bad for workers. I can't believe the way management talks out both sides of it's mouth: we have plenty of money for things, but no money people. And without workers to care for patients all this material wealth is useless.

Zombies recycle arguments, wastes paper

UPDATE: Don F. points out an excellent observation in the comments section below.

I have 2 more fliers to share with you. The first uses the same 4 lame arguments as shown in the SEIU rarely has anything new to say, ever post from last month but dumbs it down a bit with the statement "SEIU-UHW is the Kaiser union". Statement of fact is no reason to vote for the Zombies.

The second simply states "We work at Kaiser and SEIU-UHW is our union." Yeah, like that is a reason to be proud. As always, the Zombies neglect to say when the quoted members made their statement.

Look what we bought with the money we saved not paying you...a building we don't have plans for!

In a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing the executives at Memorial have decided to buy a building. It doesn't seem to matter we are going through a recession; Sonoma County's unemployment is 10.1% (yah...one in ten not working).

"We haven’t sat down and planned exactly what we will use it for," CBC (Chief Bean Counter) Mich Riccioni said.

So the damage wrought by management so far?

• hundreds laid off? Check!
• partnering with the Zombies to prevent unionization? You bet!
  
• loss of PTO and sick time? Already done! (No sick time at a hospital, that should be a mandatory!)
  
• lower morale than has been felt in years? Compliments of the Gloom and Doom partnership.

Clearly they have only the most intense contempt for their lifeblood (pun intended), their workers. Even so, they excel when it comes to patient care.

So there you have it folks: Memorial management has money, they just don't want to spend it on the very people that makes Memorial the nation's best place to go for a quick repsonse to a heart attack. Imagine that: save a person's life, and still have to contend with being laid off or just as bad be overloaded with work just for saying the word "union".

Memorial management & the Zombies: an unlikely alliance?

On May 20, 2009, SEIU had a prayer and lobbying event centered around the now abandoned Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Since they have made some very good friends with Memorial management. How good? I'm glad you asked.

In October when Memorial CEO Kevin Klockenga states that "SRMH leadership was scheduled to meet with NUHW officials to attempt to reach mutually agreed-upon ground rules for a future election," you'll notice he said "was scheduled". Since the Zombies couldn't be bothered with meeting with NUHW and Memorial management it never happened. Seeing one of the prospective unions hold up the election only served the Zombies and managements' wishes to frustrate and exhaust the workers. For both of them no union at all is better than NUHW. So the election that the workers have waited almost a year for was delayed yet again, all because of the Zombies selfish interests in delaying the inevitable landslide victory for NUHW.  

NOTE TO MANAGEMENT: Per the agreement created by your moral superiors in Respecting the Just Rights of Workers: Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Unions "management agrees not to use traditional anti-union tactics or outside firms that specialize in such tactics". Management has already violated the anti-union tactics (which is reprehensible) and clearly SEIU is the outside firm (which is their new line of work). It's not for you to pick if and which union you do business with: this is the workers choice!

Judge Frank Roesch provides temporary relief to IHSS workers

A sense of relief across was felt across the state today when Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch temporarily banned the state from blocking felons from IHSS employment. The injunction hearing is coming up January 29. If a grandma wants to hire her felon grandson, that's between the two of them, and the State needs to keep it's hand off!

The Zombies dig themselves ever deeper now with managment's help

A good summary of the Zombies nonsense so far. Hats off to Randy Shaw at BeyondChron. Get ready for a laugh-a-thon as you see them lose all credibility with the very workers they are desperately trying to get to vote for them (HAH!), discard previous gains made at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and workers, and lose their grip on reality. My favorite sentence: "Few could have imagined one year ago that SEIU’s number one hospital organizing drive in 2009 would focus on preventing workers from joining a union."