Labor Pains: Because Being in a Union can be Painful

SEIU: “It’s not a hometown union for our hometown hospital”

SEIU’s United Healthcare Workers West division bosses have got some ‘splainin’ to do. They operate the union where Kaiser employees said they didn’t even know a union organizing drive was taking place before they were forced into the union. (In new news, a friend of the Center for Union Facts passed along a note from Kaiser saying that due to the confusion, “the parties have agreed to vacate the card count.”)

Now comes another unfortunate story, where unhappy employees are circulating a petition to kick the union bosses out after only a couple of months. An employee who has been circulating the position summed up the problem:

“I think the union is very bad,” she said last week. “It’s too political. It’s not a hometown union for our hometown hospital.”

That was not all, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune‘s great story:

Some of the harshest criticism of SEIU’s effort came from representatives of the United Nurses of Children’s Hospital, a union that represents 850 nurses and 350 technical workers at the hospital, who compared the tactics to blackmail.

“The children of San Diego are not and should never be a bargaining chip,” said intensive care nurse Nichole Kennelly .

Councilman Jim Madaffer called SEIU’s move “one of the most despicable hijackings of a public process that I’ve ever witnessed.” 

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