Homecare veteran speaks about the voting horror

Dozens of homecare providers are calling on Sonoma County Supervisors to investigate SEIU's reported strong-arm tactics in a recent contract ratification vote. I spoke with Arin Stevens; she's been a Sonoma County in-home supportive service provider for 22 years.  She explained not only the background in this story, but the intimidation she witnessed at the polls.

Santa Rosa Memorial veteran hospital employee speak of SEIU UHW West's utter failure in organizing

The North Bay Labor Council is now getting involved in the dispute over two labor unions. A letter was sent out to the trustees of SEIU-UHW asking them not to delay or obstruct efforts by workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital to form a union with the National Union of Healthcare Workers or NUHW.  Nancy Timberlake works in the trauma unit at Santa Rosa Memorial and explains what's happened.

North Bay Business Journal: Health care unions clash

Read Ashley Furness' article of the North Bay Business Journal concerning the mounting tension at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, the only non-union hospital in Sonoma County. Read 'em and weep Zombie UHW!

Zombie UHW's anti-union mailer

After being asleep at the helm since their April filing with the NLRB, Zombie UHW has taken up fighting the workers choice in union representation at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. In their latest efforts the Zombies have sent this mailer which lays out several  rather lame arguments.

Gather 'round the family/work/library computer y'all and I will dissect each of the arguments made by the Zombies.

SEIU-UHW strength get the results that hospital workers need in these rough economic times.

Except when you learn that 1,600 Kaiser workers who were laid off (as shown in this section) with the Zombie's full knowledge and consent, despite the Zombie's claim to the contrary (as seen here).

• NUHW has a history of dividing workers at a time when they need us most.
  

Clearly this is something SEIU would never do, unless its April 2008 and you are at the Labor Notes conference.

• Representing over 150,000 healthcare workers, SEIU-UHW is the strongest healthcare union

Not all of them are willing members:

1. 350 nursing home workers choose NUHW over SEIU
2. Workers win election at Doctor's San Pablo!
3. Caregivers at The Sequoias join National Union of Healthcare Workers

• NUHW has 0 members under contract.

So did SEIU when it first started organizing. Give NUHW a couple years and I'm sure UHW will be but a painful and distant memory for the 150,000 of us under corporate union rule.

• SEIU-UHW is the Kaiser union with nearly 50,000 members who set the standard for all other California hospitals.

By setting standards they mean offering massive “take-aways” like no training, no voting, etc.

• NUHW has no plan and little money and resources. Many of their staff have quit.

Indeed NUHW is working on a shoestring budget but NUHW has  already helped the homecare workers in San Francisco and Sacramento counties.

People quite their jobs all the time, this is not new.

• When Kaiser tried to lay off workers, thousands of SEIU-UHW members mobilized across the state. Over 1500 positions have already been protected.
  

“[h]ave already been protected”...sounds like a cover up to me! Also, the "mobilization across the state" was an overwhelming failure.

• NUHW leaders are going to trial soon in Federal Court.
  

You think SEIU would publicize this with the same zeal as their long-worn-out claim of theft of $3 million, but I can't find anything about an impending trial!

This is clearly a desperate move on SEIU's part and will likely fall on deaf ears. They've lost the hearts and minds of the Memorial workers twice:

1. first when they literally abandoned them right after the trusteeship and 
2. again when they filed charges with the NLRB thus further delaying their union representation.

Santa Rosa Memorial workers receive anti-union mailer from SEIU-UHW; workers ask SEIU-UHW to leave

Here's the latest from Steve Sidawi, volunteer organizer for NUHW about the struggle with SEIU at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital (SRMH).

Workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital are used to anti-union literature from their employer, but this is the first one they've received from SEIU-UHW. This starting arriving at workers' homes yesterday and today. It provides confirmation that SEIU-UHW will be running a totally negative campaign against workers' chosen union, NUHW.

The mailer comes two days after members of the worker organizing committee delivered an open letter to SEIU-UHW Trustee Dave Regan asking SEIU-UHW to withdraw from the election. The text of the worker letter, signed by 75 SRMH workers, follows:

AN OPEN LETTER TO DAVE REGAN, SEIU-UHW TRUSTEE

As members of the union organizing committee at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, we are appalled at SEIU-UHW’s last-minute interference in our union election. All of us have been working and sacrificing together to organize our union, and yes, it is our  union. You may disagree with the union we have chosen, but it is our decision to organize with National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).

We filed for our election with NUHW back in April, and were forced to endure a five-month delay because of SEIU-UHW’s legal maneuvers. During that delay, nearly 200 of our coworkers were laid off, our pay was frozen and management has now made plans to take away our sick time. In this economy, workers at Memorial cannot afford to be without a union, but that is exactly what you have accomplished.

Your organizers showed up at our co-workers’ doors only after the NLRB finally allowed the election to go forward and your second attempt to stop our vote failed. The continued interference of SEIU-UHW organizers and lawyers is far worse than anything our management has done in recent memory. The NLRB may say you have a right to be on the ballot, but your presence in this election will only create confusion and division.

Last year, your union local in Ohio had scheduled an election for workers at Catholic Healthcare Partners. The California Nurses Association disrupted that election, like you are disrupting ours. In that election, the CNA used tactics to turn workers against their chosen union. You told the New York Times that the interference “is indistinguishable from that of the most vicious anti-union employers. It violates every principle of unionism. Real people are worse off today as a result of their behavior.” (New York Times, March 12, 2008).

Dave, like those workers in Ohio, we are real people too, and we are worse off because of your behavior. For too long, you and SEIU-UHW have actively prevented us from exercising our democratic right to vote for the union of our choice. So stop the house visits and stop the phone calls. It’s time for you to respect our decision and withdraw from the election at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

They're not alone: read the North Bay Labor Council's letter asking SEIU-UHW to respect the workers wishes and jump back off the election bandwagon.

Zombie UHW tips it's hand just a little bit more with its homecare contract summary

So now that the dust has settled and we're trapped in a mediocre-at-best contract, Zombie UHW has tipped it's hand just a little bit. I think by now no one is expecting Zombie UHW do anything in an above-board manner, be accountable to members or reveal anything that might be detrimental to members until after a contract has been slipped past members.

So imagine my surprise when I received this in the mail the other day. It's the same tentative agreement summary we were offered to help us make our voting decision, with a slight rewording and a bit more information only available after the slanted ratification. I urge you to read and decide for yourself just how slimy and sneaky the Zombies can be. The first two are the tentative agreement summary, the last two are the Contract summary. They are virtually identical save for some wording to address the passage of time, but look closely at the last page of the Contract summary.
Here's the tentative agreement summary, handed out before the vote count.

 

Compare this to the Contract summary, mailed to us after the ratification and after any chance of changing the contract for the benefit of homecare workers.

 

Notice how the tentative agreement had nothing of substance to say about the health benefits and now even in the Contract summary, it is still quite vague. SEIU was hiding something all along! Our dues money a work everyone!

The former and current contracts: time to compare, contrast and shudder in fear.

Get a cup of coffee or possibly a sedative and set aside at least an hour to scrutinize the difference between the contracts. If you print them out save a few trees and make double sides printed outs. Here are the source documents:

• Sonoma County Homecare Contract 2007-2009 (pre-trusteeship, open bargaining process, mail in vote for ratification, etc)
• Sonoma County Homecare Contract 2009-2011 (post-trusteeship, secretive bargaining process, in person vote for ratification, etc)

Here's a nearly complete summary of what's in the new contract. As you can see the Purple Plague had good reason to hide this pile of garbage!

Pre-trusteeship Contract	Post-trusteeship Contract
SECTION V: UNION RIGHTS
Section did not exist.	5.5 C. NEW PROVIDER ORIENTATIONS All Providers are required to complete an orientation in conformance with applicable State law. The flier handed out during the 3 days of closely supervised and coercive voting states that “all [emphasis added] Providers are required to complete an orientation” but our new contract adds “in conformance with applicable State law.” To add to the confusion the section is titled “NEW PROVIDER ORIENTATIONS”. For many this is akin to being required to take high school driver's education and training classes after 10 years of flawless truck driving. So what gives? Did SEIU omit “new” accidentally or on purpose? Ugh...why am I asking? Also, the State is requiring homecare Providers and Consumers to be fingerprinted.  If SEIU were on it's game during the 2009-2010 budget cycle this would surely have been struck down at the state level. But an all out war in Fresno for homecare workers and the $10 million of our dues money SEIU squandered to barely win had SEIU distracted from what it should have been doing: fighting for members instead of fighting with members!
Section did not exist. This seems fair but what if the Public Authority doesn't agree with the message, or we with their message?	5.7 MAILINGS TO PROVIDERS The Public Authority will include official Union notices in mailings to the bargaining unit from the Public Authority if the Union provides such notices to the Public Authority ten (10) days prior to the mailing date. The Union will reimburse any additional mailing costs to the Public Authority in the event that Union materials increase those costs. The Union will similarly accommodate the Public Authority in its mailings. Not mentioned in Tentative Agreement summary.
SECTION VII: WAGES AND OTHER COMPENSATION
7.1 WAGES
Section did not exist	B. Ninety (90) days prior to October 1, 2010, [July 3, 2010] the parties shall re-open negotiations regarding the subject of wages and benefits only. Looking at page 1 of the flier the Zombies handed to voters before the consultation and vote it mentions the above wage re-opener, but doesn't indicate why a re-opener would occur at that time in the contract. Could it be that October 1, 2010 is when the Recovery Act funded FMAP money runs out? This is extremely dangerous because is years past when the State wanted to cut homecare wages during a deficit year the battle to preserve wages was fought at the state level, but now the wage reduction is in an iron-clad contract and therefore not subject to discussion if (and very likely when) our wages drop. This seems like the Zombies way of sneaking an almost certain and devastating wage reduction past unsuspecting homecare members which is very easy to do when no one is allowed to view the contract.
SECTION VII: WAGES AND OTHER COMPENSATION
A. The Public Authority shall set aside Twenty Five Thousand Dollars ($25,000) per year during each full fiscal year of this Agreement to provide On-Call Relief services.	7.3 A. ON-CALL RELIEF Contingent upon available funding, the Public Authority shall provide On-Call Relief services. To me “[c]ontingent upon available funding” sounds like on-call relief is about to become a casualty of the State's budget ax, but I'll leave it to you to interpret this bit of euphemistic language.
SECTION VIII: BENEFITS
8.1 HEALTH AND DENTAL INSURANCE
8.1 A. 1. The Public Authority currently contracts with the Service Employees International Union Employees/Employers Dental and Medical Trust Fund to provide Kaiser Health and Enhanced Vision Care Insurance to eligible Providers. Under this plan, the co-pay for office visits is $15.00; the co-pay for brand name prescriptions is $20.00; and the co-pay for generic prescriptions is $10.00.	8.1 A. 1. The Public Authority currently contracts with the HealthCare Employees/Employers Dental and Medical Trust Fund to provide health and vision insurance to eligible Providers. In the event that either party proposes a change in the health insurance plan, the parties will meet and confer over the selection and implementation of a new plan. Not mentioned in Tentative Agreement summary. Why is SEIU changing who handles the trusts? More important: this seem like the decision to abandon Kaiser coverage for a yet to be named successor has already been made!
2. Effective May 1, 2008 or as soon as possible thereafter, the parties agree to provide health and dental insurance through the Kaiser Fidelity Health Plan. Effective May 1, 2008, the Provider Health Plan premium contribution shall increase from Seventeen Dollars and Fifty Cents($17.50) per month to Twenty Five Dollars ($25.00) per month.	2. Effective May 1, 2008, the parties agree to provide health and dental insurance and the Provider contribution shall be Twenty Five Dollars ($25.00) per month. The Co-pay amounts shall be in accordance with the Health Plan provisions.
3. Effective July 1, 2008, the Public Authority shall contribute no more than Sixty Cents (60¢) per hour to the total cost of providing a health/dental plan.	3. Effective May 1, 2008, the Public Authority shall contribute no more than Sixty Cents (60¢) per hour to the total cost of providing a health/dental plan. Whoa! May instead of July? Does anybody hear “Back in Time” by Huey Lewis and the News here? Hmm, well when you're under pressure from your Zombie boss to nail down a contract ASAP, certain details escape your attention.
8.4 A. The payment of insurance premiums shall be processed as follows:	8.4 A. Effective as soon as possible following Union ratification and Board approval of this MOU, the payment of insurance premiums shall be processed as follows: Not mentioned in Tentative Agreement summary.
8.4 PROCESSING AND PAYMENT OF INSURANCE PREMIUMS
A. 1. The Public Authority will forward the full amount (Public Authority and Provider share) of insurance premiums to the Service Employee International Union Employees/Employers Dental and Medical Trust Fund each month of this Agreement.	A.1. The Public Authority will forward the full amount (Public Authority and Provider share) of insurance premiums to the Healthcare Employees/Employers Dental and Medical Trust Fund each month of this Agreement. Not mentioned in Tentative Agreement summary. Again there is change in the way the premium payments are being handled. Why?
3. Once each month, the Public Authority shall forward to the Union a listing of the Providers who have qualified for benefits and for whom payroll deductions or direct payments shall be processed. The Union shall forward the payroll deduction information to the State Controller’s Office, collect individual payments and, shall forward the full amount deducted/collected to the Public Authority once each month. The specific processing procedures to be followed by the Union and the Public Authority are contained in Appendix A of this Agreement.	3. Once each month, the Trust shall forward to the Union a listing of the Providers who have qualified for benefits and for whom payroll deductions or direct payments shall be processed. The Union shall forward the payroll deduction information to the State Controller’s Office, collect individual payments and, shall forward the full amount deducted/collected to the Trust once each month. Why?
8.4A 4. If payroll deduction services become available to the Public Authority during the term of this Agreement, the Public Authority and the Union shall meet to reevaluate these processing procedures. Modifications shall be by mutual agreement only.	Deleted. Direct deposit has been available on a statewide basis since 2008 for all union represented homecare workers. If you're interested, print the following form to start direct deposit to your checking or savings account: Direct Deposit Application. I was unable to find the same form on the UHW website.
SECTION IX: REGISTRY
9.1 B. Registry services will include an on-call relief service to provide emergency relief and to provide short-term temporary respite replacement for Providers.	9.1 B. Contingent upon available funding, Registry Services will include an on-call relief service to provide emergency relief and to provide short-term temporary respite replacement for Providers. Not mentioned in Tentative Agreement summary. Grrrr! There's that slippery wording the bargaining team members were taken in with.
SECTION XI: HEALTH AND SAFETY
11.1 The IHSS Public Authority will make available standard gloves (including non-latex gloves), masks and disinfectant hand wipes at no charge to Providers and consumers who request the supplies	11.1 Contingent upon available funding, the IHSS Public Authority will make available standard gloves (including non-latex gloves), masks and disinfectant hand wipes at no charge to Providers and consumers who request the supplies. Stock up now on gloves and such, folks...while you still can!
SECTION XIV: FULL UNDERSTANDING, SAVINGS CLAUSE, STATE MANDATES, TERM
Section did not exist.	14.3 STATE MANDATED CHANGES In the event the State makes changes to the terms and conditions affecting the employment of Providers, the parties will meet and confer over the implementation of such changes. The parties will complete the meet and confer process no later than thirty (30) days following the effective date of the State-mandated policy or provisions.

Purple Plague fights 3 foes at Santa Rosa Memorial: NUHW, North Bay Labor Council and ...?

That's right folks the Zombies are taking on 3 parties interested in organizing workers at Santa Rosa Memorial: NUHW, the North Bay Labor Council and (of course) the workers themselves! Read what the NBLC has to say on the matter. NUHW doesn't (yet) have a delegation to the Labor Council but they are still supported. The former UHW-W built up quite a coalition of community, political and labor leaders and was on the verge of a representation vote earlier this year but abandoned our future brothers and sister once this politically motivated trusteeship went into effect. Oh, the horror of being in UHW's death-grip is bad enough but when they have no plans to help workers improve their lives, nonsense like this happens.

North Bay Labor Council endorses NUHW organizing at Santa Rosa Memorial

The Zombies has dropped the ball for the last time. Read it now feel the love for NUHW shining through.

One perspective to the homecare bargaining "process"

My recollections of the bargaining process/cycle.

On March 16, 2009 I emailed a marked up copy of the 2007-2009 contract to Reefah's UHW and personal email addresses. I never received a response to this email. I have not been able to see if any of my suggested changes made it into the contract, since a copy of the contract is still quite difficult to obtain.

Next up was a “steward meeting” consisting of the 2 remaining stewards Mark Nelson and Anita Torres who according to Reefah decided that any UHW member supporting NUHW was not allowed onto UHW financed charter buses, etc. I think this is when UHW decided to bargain in secret and to keep the TA away from all but the most persistent members and then only on the night of the vote.

I received a mailer asking for me to circle the 4 things most important to me (wages, benefits, etc) and include my name and contact info if I wanted to be on the bargaining team; no response to my interest in the latter.

By now we knew bargaining was happening, but had no clue as to that was going on since, I suspect the bargaining team members weren't exposed to the ground rules of bargaining and therefore did not know that discussion of bargaining with principals (team member to fellow homecare worker) was allowed. Four of the eight bargaining team members were previous NUHW supporters: Alan Shuman, Mark Nelson, Anita Torres and Karen Timmons. (As keeper of the decert petitions I can prove this!)

From here on out to the election there was a great deal of secrecy until the Labor Day Breakfast at the labor center on Corby Avenue (in Santa Rosa) when Karen Timmons named all of the bargaining members and leaked a few details: the wage reduction when the ARRA funded FMAP money runs out and the likely change in health insurance to United Healthcare should Kaiser rates increase “a lot”

Next up was the election meetings themselves with Mark Nelson pushing around a smaller woman at the Healdsburg library, him telling me “I don't like that” when I took a picture of the ballot at the Petaluma community center. The county Board of Supes found this picture quite shocking because of it's wording. Marie White, our very active and educated (former lawyer for the disabled) 85-year old supporter was blocked from voting until, I believe, a threat to call the cops allowed her in the building being guarded by at least 2 quite muscular guards.

When I met with Gustavo I reminded him I was still a member of UHW, pay my dues and just because I am a dissenter doesn't mean viewing the TA was forbidden. He relented and retrieved the TA but wouldn't let go of it at first. He wanted to narrate; I wanted to read it to and for myself. I told him he was bigger than me, much bigger and I'm not going to run off with the contract; this convinced him to not keep his death grip on the TA.

As good as getting the TA may have been for our cause I believe UHW's spin on it would cause more damage than the advantage we'd have if we had the TA in hand before the end of the vote.

The vote itself was on a ballot that didn't go in an envelope that would disguise the vote until the vote count, went in a cardboard box and all votes would be counted by UHW with no impartial observer. UHW claims exactly 90% in favor, not a more believable lie like 91.2%.