Better Dead than Red?

Wow, shocking but totally unexpected. Way to go Zombie UHW! You'll do anything but support dues paying members, won't you? I suspect this is the first of many healthcare employers to reduce it's workforce now that employers know that if put to a vote for UHW or NUHW, the Purple Plague will bend over backwards to screw it's own members just to secure a win over NUHW. The message here is clear: think for yourself or vote for NUHW and you're on your own. "Race to the bottom," indeed!

When in bed with the boss make sure the roof doesn't cave in!

This is disturbing as it is unexpected. As time goes on SEIU is becoming harder to differentiate from the employer it seeks to emulate, by acting more and more like the employers it should be battling on behalf of it's dues-paying members. This week's act of complacency and passive support is documented below in Randy Shaw's article on Beyond Chron.

"We just write the rules, we don't follow them"

This is essentially what Memorial management is saying to the workers and the community in which we all live.
They fought 2 different unions organization efforts and lost. The pushed a no union vote and lost. They filed objections about the election and either rescinded them or had them trounced by the NLRB. Yet they still fight the inevitable.

Shame on them! If you are as outraged as me we can all voice our opinion by contacting Sister Katherine Gray, CSJ (General Superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange), and writing a respectful but unambiguous email stating your concern for Memorial management's disregard for it's own rules, mission statements, and the decision made by voter in December election, we can hopefully and finally get the hospital to behave and move forward instead of backward.

kgray@csjorange.org

Memorial saga continues...

Apparently it's not enough that the workers at Memorial have been organizing, waiting and fighting management for more than 6 years to join a union. Throw in 2 competing unions, a substantial "no union" effort backed by Memorial management vote, unending delays, appeals and psychological warfare from management, despite their own commitment to abide by the workers choice and you can see Memorial management is proving the unthinkable is possible by treating it's own employees worse than the Zombies treat it's own members.

First is Randy Shaw's article at BeyondChron.

As beautifully pointed out by Randy Shaw at BeyondChron, Memorial management has yet again taken the low road and further delayed the inevitable union-negotiated contract between the voters who won the election and the ever profitable Saint Joseph Health Systems. How profitable? On December 7, 2009, just 10 days before the election they bought a building they don't have immediate plans for. This recreational shopping at its finest folks!

However, the news isn't all bad NUHW is the official and exclusive bargaining agent for Santa Rosa Memorial workers, again.

* * *

Sorry about the delay in reporting this (and the other postings today): I just finished 8 days in a row at my new job. In an economy where unemployment is10% nationwide I feel fortunate to have 2 jobs; however working homecare and delivering pizza to western Santa Rosa is no road to riches. Also, today marks the first year of marriage so I'm catching up on my blogging and then spending time with my sweetie.

Huerta/Medina split just as lame as NUHW/Zombie split

The battle for the hearts and minds of UHW members, the civil war between two very different ways of thinking about how a union ought to be run has sparked a similarly bitter stand off between former peers in UFW the United Farm Workers. Dolores Huerta a co-founder of UFW (along with César Chávez) and Medina used to fight side by side, but now Medina with the backing of the nation's most corrupt union local SEIU UHW is resorting to calling the police to have Huerta arrested for merely talking to pro-NUHW workers. Their efforts to suppress Huerta failed miserably. Read more about this at BeyondChron. My thanks to Mike Wilzoch for speaking out yet again. It's good to have some inside perspective on this unfolding side drama. For even more background on Mike's views on UHW read his letters to the editor here, here, here and here.

Zombies push for "No Union" votes fails...again!

The Zombies have revealed their main approach to defeating NUHW: vote no union...or else, with "or else" meaning NUHW will win. As happened in the election for unorganized workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, last December the no union vote, an obvious favorite of management is now the favored vote of Zombie UHW when ever they suspect they will lose a vote between the 2 unions.

Read on to see how this strategy is backfiring. One would think the Zombies would change course after losing repeatedly with this lame-o topic, but these are Zombies: they "know how to do everything" and are "never wrong". Hah!

Unable to fight fairly, Zombies hit below the belt

I don't know about you but I'm already tired of Mark Key Henry and what's going on at SEIU on the international level. To me, the new prez is just as divisive, manipulating and power hungry as her predecessor. She may be able to make amends with the unions and others Stern drove off, but like Stern she won't even consider working out SEIU's differences with NUHW. Apparently, it's ok to pick a fight but not ok to call a truce.

* * *

Anyway, on the the meat of this entry.

It appears the Summer Games, errr I mean WWIII has begun. Randy Shaw scoops the story below. Having been burned by the Zombies I look forward to a summer of stunning defeats for the Zombies. I fully expect they will "win" some elections if only by brute force, 100% annual turnover at various nursing homes with pending elections and because of these conditions NUHW has to good sense to pullout before the election.

P.S. Check out the memo referenced in the article: they have to stop writing this stuff down!

"You Have 0 Friends"

Ever notice how half of the Zombie UHW emails use the phrase so-and-so reject NUHW? The Zombies should know rejection of NUHW from constant pounding of members until they voted SEIU is a hollow victory at best. Well now the shoe is on the other foot and SEIU, as a whole is being rejected by both ILGWU and UNITE HERE. So what to do, when no one wants to be your friend? Well it's official: the unintended consequences of raiding UNITE HERE while denying such a treacherous action is taking place is proof no one that matters likes SEIU! Keep shooting yourself in the foot Zombies.

Checklist for Perez Henry

I have to admit I was not impressed with Zombie SEIU as it was run under Führer Stern's watch, but Randy Shaw's article at BeyondChron gave me a flicker of a hope that incoming International President Mary Kay Henry's administration might have the brains to lead the Zombies out of the mess the Führer has made. Squaring up with UNITE/HERE & NUHW would go a long way towards advancing both the interests of SEIU and labor in general.

I'm somewhat worried about Henry the dark horse candidate turned International President. I had high hopes two other unlikely high office candidates Obama and the Governator, given their obvious difference from the usual crop of candidates, would have the courage to lead in new and constructive ways...and we all see how well they've worked out for the working poor. Obama & SEIU: no EFCA or public option for universal healthcare, and the Governator's relentless attacks on the disabled poor and their caretakers.

Meh, we'll see.

Life in a post-Andy world: what lies ahead?

The successor to will be Anna Buger until an election and then it's game on, with Burger and Henry as likely candidates. These are our choices? Sheeeeeesh! Give the choice, I wouldn't choose. Burger is essentially a female Andy Stern and Henry is certainly intent on destroying NUHW and all that is stands for.

Stern may have accomplished some admirable goals, but he's left one hell of a mess for the next president to clean up. Just think of it as his gift to 1.8 million dues paying members and the labor movement.

Press coverage for the NUHW/Zombie SEIU trial

Most labor disputes go unreported or woefully under-reported by the LameStream media. In an effort to bring the coverage to the forefront of my readers minds here's a round up of what was covered by mostly local media. Oddly enough the New York Times had a little, very little to say about this monumental Zombie SEIU screw up.


I have decided not to list any press releases written by Zombie UHW media relations flunkie Steve Trossman since they are horribly biased propaganda pieces and I assume none of my readers care in the least what he has to say.

Obviously a lot of the coverage will be duplicative but I feel it's still worth reading to get a consensus view of the trial and it's implications.

First off are Randy Shaw's and Carl Finamore's articles on BeyondChron, followed by Randy's summary of the struggle for union democracy since January 2009.

Local coverage continues with San Francisco Business Times coverage by Chris Rauber, IndyBay, Christopher Cook at San Francisco Bay Guardian.

National coverage includes the kind of super secret teleconference attendee David Moberg of In These Times, Mike Parker at Labor Notes, Steve Early at Monthly Review and finally Stephen Greenhouse of the New York Times wrote a whole paragraph about the trial verdict.

As a blogger I would be remiss if I didn't mention the excellent coverage of fellow bloggers Perez Stern and Tasty Burger (here, here and here).

Much to my surprise the pseudo-bloggers from the trial have nothing to say, despite being ecstatic about the verdict during Friday's teleconference. Lame!

"Meanwhile at the Legion of Doom..."

Disclaimer: Exactly who said what and name spellings may be incorrect but the gist of what was said should be pretty easy to figure out and follow.

Artists rendering of the tightly controlled teleconference Friday afternoon.

An unexpected perk of following the trial from the Zombies perspective included a mass email invitation to the post verdict debriefing. I received two invites: one sent to my real name and email address and one for the blog. Much to my surprise both received replies with the phone number to call. So I called in under my real name and after waiting on hold for 10 minutes (I called 2 minutes early to make sure I got in) I was patched into the call in the middle of a man's sentence. He then introduced Mary Kay Henry, International VP of SEIU. What a cheerleader!

When she took control of the phone call she announced an agenda.

1. Verdict
2. Evidence
3. Feelings & Impressions

Verdict

So, of course they were happy with the verdict for obvious reasons. Now they finally have a third party/jury-based opinion about these crimes against SEIU that the former UHW employees allegedly committed for defending the wishes of their members above the dictatorial wishes of Führer Stern. No doubt they will go to ridiculous lengths to promote this verdict to their own advantage, including recycled lies and other puffery.

Keep in mind the representation cost for Zombie SEIU was, according to Steve "Don't take the Bait" Trossman, $5 million and involved for 4 law firms. Given the Zombies propensity for lying it's sure much more than $5 million. Should they get every penny of the award (see below) they still lost $4.3 million, backed off of or had numerous claims struck down, galvanized NUHW staff and supporters and have further pitted members against each other and employers against workers. As both Randy Shaw of BeyondChron and Tasty Burger at Stern Burger with Fries point out, the award is for either $724,000 against NUHW itself or $854,150 for the 16 remaining (out of 28) defendants. Added together this adds up to just a little more than the oft repeated "more than $1.5 million" the Zombies are fond of quoting. 12 defendants were cleared of all charges including 2 during the trial itself.

Evidence

The evidence the Zombies presented included:

• secret conspiracy as far back as 2007, (likely a reaction to the secret deal with nursing home operators which is a real conspiracy!),
• secret access to UHW servers (sounds like a lazy or incompetent sys admin to me),
• secret (non-UHW addresses) email system (which, when used to resist a trusteeship is totally legal, as pointed out numerous times by Judge Alsup),
• $3 million secret slush fund (didn't they drop this claim early on in the suit? It isn't listed in their "Guilty" flier.)

At this point a man's voice took over and covered many point to put the listeners into a froth. He stated that among other things, former UHW leaders:

• resorted to violence (but gave no examples)
• used members as a shield for their activities (it's the members who need a shield from Zombie UHW, just ask Liz Castillo!)
• circulated disassociation petitions (still not illegal)

Feelings & Impressions

He then stated that "they can't be trusted ever on anything". Has he (I believe he was Kohlman, the lawyer) followed what the Zombies have done since the trusteeship? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Finally he stated that everything in Barbara Lewis' [make the local] "ungovernable" memo came true. I don't know what the document stated, if it was a note to herself or a policy to be followed but the Zombies have done a fine job of making UHW ungovernable all by themselves. Of course this last comment concerns what has happened outside of January 2009, the focus of the trial, but still...I'm just saying.

At this point a Daughters of Charity member stated that she was very upset about the expired contract, and it's canceled extension. I wonder if she can admit to herself that the contract expiration and subsequent cancellation of the extension was to allow the members to strike for improved benefits. The half-truths Zombie supporters are willing to believe say in order to convince themselves the Zombies have their best interests at heart despite overwhelming evidence boggles the mind!

For a while there was some random spouting off from the "member bloggers" including Rudy Vallin stating it's time to "get back to work". Erica Boddie, another "member blogger"stated she was disappointed, felt this was a "slap in the face", complained about "purple shirts turning to red" and wondered why former leadership wasn't "practicing what you preach". She wanted it known that if she felt something was wrong with her union she would do everything within her power to fix it. What?! Where were you in the months leading up to the trusteeship? It's so easy to say that now! She also stated the obvious by saying that this trial "deeply impacted the labor movement" and now is the time to "restore the labor movement". Finally, she stated the trial has caused a lot of confusion among members. This surely was one of the Zombies goals, and for those Zombie supporters that read and believe everything stated in their emails and other propaganda, then pick up a newspaper or read any other source of news or opinion,confusion will result. And confused people made decisions they don't understand.

Mary Kay kicked in with a few completely unbelievable comments. She stated the "nation is cheering", spoke highly of the "3 incredible ['member blogger'] leaders" and finally "I'm completely indignant!"

Q & A

Finally came the Q & A which showcased how brainwashed some of the Zombie UHW members really are, and how some members will believe what ever is told to them by the union, no matter how ludicrous.


April, from Kaiser Vallejo, stated this was a "great, great, great victory" but wanted to know what was next, specifically do they go to jail? No, this was a civil trial jail time is not an option. Where would they get the idea jail time was a possibility for the defendants? Hmmmmmmm.

Not wanting to pass up a chance to show off her self-deprecation skills Erica Boddie stated she would have been just as happy with a damage award of "$1.98".

A reporter from the Daily Labor Report asked about the fees for representation. Erica's response: likely equal to what NUHW spent defending itself, but most importantly "the cost to us was a moral victory"! I couldn't have misquoted myself any better than she did just there. She didn't even stop to correct herself! She was confident about the excellent representation! Sheesh. The self-denial among this group of sheep is amazing to say the least!

David Moberg, of In These Times asked what evidence did the jury agree with, and was told "the jury just took it all in". How's that for a non-answer?!

Erica spoke up again and said she is "here to represent the members" and "it's time to move forward"

Finally some members who were waiting on hold got in on the action were allowed to speak. Sonoma county's very own human megaphone, homecare worker and one time NUHW supporter Mark Nelson profusely thanked the lawyer for his work, and then proclaimed the new name for NUHW: "First name: Nothin', Last name: Comin' ". This is the level of understanding and sophistication we in Sonoma county have come to expect from Mark. I was somewhat disappointed when Mark didn't try to start and S-E-I-U! S-E-I-U! S-E-I-U! chant right then and there.

But the best part came in the last few seconds of the teleconference from yet another Sonoma county homecare worker and turn-coat Karen Timmons (a/k/a marymagdaleneforpresident or Nerak as she is known on the "member blogs"). She stated without hesitation and quite proudly that Sal and company didn't care about workers, and, (I'm not putting words into her mouth) "they are sociopaths"! That was classic Karen. I wished I had the ability to legally record the conversation. She also felt that "an act of God or a thunderbolt" was needed" to wake them up", but now is the time to talk to members, be kind and thoughtful. I wonder if this includes known or suspected NUHW supporters.

Just before the phone called ended there was an announcement that there were no more people waiting to ask questions which makes me wonder if the Zombies were screening callers, and how many other were on hold.

 * * *

Through out this phone call there was a sense of carefully controlled language, and not-so-subtle suggestions about what the members need to take back to their coworkers to convince them this circus, this spending spree, this near complete legal defeat was somehow a tremendous win for workers. No matter how you look at it this trial failed in all of it's objectives. Persist and march on reformers turned NUHW employees and supporters, you all continue to amaze me!

The other bloggers...

The well informed Zombie UHW prisoner keeps abreast of what's going in a media climate that doesn't cover labor issues unless there is a trusteeship, strike or other high profile event. The real coverage about what is going on in labor can be found in so called "alternative" sources such as Labor Notes, Daily Kos, Empire Report, In These Times, etc. The one exception has been the L.A Times journalist Paul Pringle's exposé of ULTCW's (United Long Term Care Workers) much maligned former president Tyrone Freeman.

Just as important and much more in depth than any Lame Stream media reporting are my fellow volunteer bloggers Sierra Spartan (retired) at ¡Adiós, Andy!, Tasty Burger at Stern Burger with Fries, and of course the highly respected and scathing-without-being-petty commentary of Perez Stern at (you guessed it) Perez Stern (back in action). What we all have in common is our burning desire to bring the evil of SEIU to the light of day and throwing in a little snark to take the edge off the daily dose of betrayal served up by the Zombies. And we do so gladly, for no compensation, real name recognition or any other means of motivation. We do it because it needs to be done.

So I find it especially galling that SEIU is now apparently paying members to blog about the trial against the former leaders of UHW in San Francisco these last 2 weeks. These likely dues-financed bloggers are (and likely without knowing it) taking one the remaining forms of unadulterated journalism and using it to deceive the few who read their blogs. I normally don't promote my intellectually inferior, morally bankrupt, react without thinking mortal enemies, but in the spirit of encouraging my readers to do as I do and form their own opinions I will list those bloggers below. I read them in my effort to keep a well rounded sense of what is going on down in San Francisco but I find their writing wholly unsubstantiated, irritating, highly speculative and far more biased than my own writing. Somehow I think it's more than just $8 an hour (California minimum wage) or $20 an entry. The way the Zombies throw around money, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. As for the pseudo-bloggers following the trial no new entries have been made since the verdict! Perhaps the Zombie have cast them aside, just like they wanted to cast us homecare workers aside!

Bob "Nolehace" Lewis: http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/author/nolehace (First entry 3/24/10)

Erica Boddie: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erica-boddie/ (First entry 3/22/10)
"Homecare Mary" Harms: http://homecaremary.blogspot.com/ (First entry 3/19/10)
Rudy Vallin: http://www.calitics.com/userDiary.do?personId=4980 (First entry 3/19/10)

Apparently, the Zombies feel they have hit on something because now 3 more blogs popped up just today. They are centered around the KP national level bargaining. Notice how they all have the same kp prefix: it's kp-person's first name.blogspot.com. And they all were created on the same day, April 5, 2010. Clearly this wasn't a coincidence in either batch of bloggers.

	Silvia Torres-Limon (Northern CA): http://kp-silva.blogspot.com	First entry 4/5/2010
	Shirlee Anne Shirley (Southern CA): http://kp-shirlee.blogspot.com	First entry 4/5/2010
	Angela Young (Northern CA): http://kp-angela.blogspot.com	First entry 4/5/2010

As far as I know the progress of bargaining is only shared with the people represented: management negotiators report to management, labor negotiators report to the membership. This is how it was in homecare bargaining before the trusteeship. Oh wait, no, I'm wrong. According to Karen Timmons, Sonoma County bargaining team member for the first post-trusteeship contract renewal, said in no uncertain terms that:

Contracts are NEVER given to members to read until they are a done deal, signed by committee, IHSS/PA and the Supervisors.

For my outside of the wacky world of homecare readers, the IHSS PA is the In Home Supportive Service Public Authority, an arm of county government and the entity with which we bargain. The county supervisors double as the board of directors for Public Authority.

So why exactly is Zombie UHW encouraging and likely paying members to violate what I suspect is banned in the ground rules of bargaining? My guess: smoke screen. This way the Zombies can bargain away even more of the hard fought gains of Kaiser members without distraction of the members whose lives they will be harming. Prove me wrong Zombies! Show me your track record since the trusteeship was just temporary insanity!

This makes me so mad! So if you see any of these blind obedience to Zombie UHW folks running around off their leash...well send them on a Keyser Söze-inspired wild goose chase!

(10 minutes pass...)

And where were these pseudo-bloggers before the trial and before the KP bargaining? Perez Stern's got his start on 2/4/2009, Sierra Spartan 2/6/2009, me on 9/16/2009 and Tasty on 11/12/2009. In defense of Perez & Sierra, they may have started within 2 days of each other but took different approaches and used different writing styles. Also this was right after the train wreck in slow motion (trusteeship) was implemented.

Update (4/7/10): I found 3 more. They were all born yesterday, literally!

	Therese Fleming (Central Valley): http://kp-therese-f.blogspot.com	First entry 4/6/2010 All entries removed 4/8/2010
	Rachelle Heartte (MSW, ACSW):  http://kp-rachelle-h.blogspot.com	First entry 4/6/2010
	Victoria DeLacruz (Central Valley): http://kp-victoria.blogspot.com	First entry 4/6/2010

Zombie UHW: pushing the anti-union vote at all costs, again

It seems the Zombies will never learn from their mistakes. As you may recall the vote for unionization at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital last December was 283 for NUHW and - no kidding - 13 for the Zombies. This staggering loss was widely publicized, but what was not as well publicized is the vote for no union at all, a nerve-rackingly close 263. I was at the vote count that night and it was quite an emotional roller-coaster for all but the Zombie UHW supporters.

You'd think after such a staggering (21.8:1) defeat the Zombies would change their tactics, as would any normal person or group. But the Zombies - being a special breed of con artists - will keep using the same lame tactic while utterly convinced better results are just around the corner. What they are doing this time should make the unofficial alliance with Memorial management pale in comparison. To learn more, read Randy Shaw's article from BeyondChron to learn just what the Zombies have been up to down at USC University Hospital.

Worse yet is their attack on Barbara Lewis and NUHW (of course)! However, before I dissect their flier I just want to point out I just don't believe anything the Zombies have to say. They've outright lied so many times and aren't willing to back most of their statements it's difficult to say with absolute certainly what's truth and what's puffery. So I will instead point out the hypocracy in their statements, claims which I can easily back, and they are reluctant to talk about when presented with the truth.

So, right off the bat, the third and forth words in the title: Backroom Deal. Given the Zombies track record for backroom deals (listed below) and the fact that NUHW is running a shoe-string budget, with a much smaller staff than their Zombie counterparts, does anyone really believe that NUHW has the time or interest in negotiating a backroom deal? This would seem to go against one of the main reasons why NUHW exists!

Here a few of the juicier backroom deals Zombie UHW have negotiated on behalf of their prisoners, err I mean "members", courtesy of ¡Adiós, Andy!

The LMP Shakedown
Reganomics (also referenced above in paragraph 2)
SEIU Threatens To Dissolve CKPU
Pharmacy Agreement Going Down To Defeat?
Zombie UHW Taketh, Zombie UHW Giveth Away...
Signed, Sealed, Sold Out
Signed, Sealed, Sold Out (Part Two)
...and so on

Second is this long standing claim that NUHW officials, acting in their capacities as pre-Zombie UHW elected (not appointed) officials, are guilty of "misusing millions in union funds". This misuse of union funds is merely an opinion presented as fact from the International. As U.S. 9th Circuit District Judge William Alsup has told the jury many times in the trial between NUHW & the Zombies these last 2 weeks, resisting the trusteeship is not a violation of the law, it just doesn't sit well with the International leadership's plan to run all of SEIU from Washington, D.C. with no real regard for the members or prospective members. In simple terms this is akin to moving money from your wallet or purse to your hand. Unless it has changed hands it's still yours!

Finally, this bit about NUHW signing a "secret deal with management" and cutting "members out ... completely". This is almost identical to what the Zombies did to homecare workers up here in Sonoma county back in September. But I'm just speaking from experience, what do I know about Zombie UHW practices in California.

When great local unions go bad

(As per Perez Stern's direction in his Friday, March 26 entry here are the key terms in today's blog entry, and its supporting works: Huffington Post, BeyondChron, Sal Rosselli, John Borsos, Shirley Nelson, Carl Finamore, Andy Stern, SEIU, NUHW, UHW, Judge Alsup, $25 million in damages, lump sum payout pension, Alameda Hospital, Eliseo Medina, Mary Kay Henry, Tyrone Freeman and Leon Chow.) Now, on with the show (blog)!

* * *

If occurs to me that some of my readers may be outside of the healthcare/NUHW/SEIU realm of understanding and therefore only vaguely aware of SEIU's lawsuit against the 26 union reformers now the leadership of NUHW. So I found a couple of articles that give a good summary of the trial; one from NUHW supporter perspective and one that gives an outside looking in perspective. Both are well written and will sum up this crucial trial for union democracy.

First, NUHW member and caregiver at Kaiser Redwood City Hospital Shirley Nelson sounds off with this bit about the absurdity of the Zombies attacks and why they are really suing the vanguards of union democracy.

Second is Carl Finamore's article on BeyondChron. It explains what happens when international union leadership runs roughshod over the local union's elected leaders, to the dismay of the electing members.

SEIU gets into bed with Sutter management...

...before the beds have even arrived! This move defines a new low for the Zombies in terms of back room deals and now, the very odd appropriation of their own staff.

The Side Letter even authorized Sutter to assign SEIU-UHW workers to spend work hours building support for the project.

Wow, I thought they hit rock bottom , but this is messed up! Read Randy Shaw's article of BeyondChron.com about the new deal between the Zombies and Sutter, the worst of the worst in their respective fields.

Local 1021 members regain control of their local; Führer Stern...

...calls to congratulate them?! Might we be seeing the softer side of ol' Mr. Pink-Scarf? Who would have thought an election inside a mega-local could have been pulled off without any (or at least any substantial) resistance from $tern & Co.? Congratulations Local 1021 elected leaders: you've set an example for the rest of SEIU.

A healthcare protest at UC Berkley? Yeah!

Ah, to be young and full of ideas. This protest is creative, eye-catching and certainly needed in this day and age.

 

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)

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?