Ohio Healthcare Workers Defend Their Dream
Ohio Healthcare Workers Defend Their Dream
Ohio employees of Catholic Healthcare Partners (CHP) have been campaigning for three years to win fair organizing rules free of traditional high-pressure tactics, so that they could vote on whether to form a union with SEIU District 1199. Days before 8,000 of them were about to realize their dreams and vote in NLRB elections, a hostile swarm of out-of-state organizers from the California Nurse's Association (CNA) descended on them and made their dream a distant hope. Urging "union no" votes, the CNA fabricated wild and false allegations that created confusion and fear among CHP employees.
After it became clear that a free and fair vote was no longer possible, SEIU and CHP decided to indefinitely postpone the elections that were previously scheduled for nine Ohio hospitals. The victims of this tragedy are hard-working nurses and other hospital employees who are being denied the chance to participate in decisions that affect themselves, their patients, and their livelihoods. Hear them speak for themselves about this heartbreaking turn in the following clip:
Although thousands of other nurses throughout the country have experienced the CNA's unprincipled tactics before, the CNA sank to new lows in Ohio. Instead of supporting efforts to set high standards for employer conduct in organizing campaigns beyond those allowed by the NLRB, the CNA deceptively attacked them as "backroom deals" with "handpicked" unions designed to deny RNs a choice. Now the CNA is even waging unfounded and gratuitous attacks on Catholic bishops and the Catholic Health Association.
It's unfathomable that the CNA, a new member of the AFL-CIO, would jump in and try to frighten workers into voting "no." Their efforts have constituted the singlemost vicious anti-union campaign ever seen by SEIU, and it's all the more shocking to be coming from a so-called "union." Given the damage that the CNA is doing to the entire labor movement's efforts to achieve fair organizing standards, AFL-CIO leaders were appealed to for help by SEIU,
along with CHP workers — but to no avail.
What kind of message does it send when an employer that actually does the right thing — by agreeing to fair organizing rules — is then attacked by the labor movement with wildly false charges? SEIU and our allies find the CNA's union-busting unconscionable. Please join us in
expressing your outrage at the CNA .
Further links:
Springfield (OH) News Sun editorial ,
CHP Workers' Letter to CNA ,
Cincinnati Enquirer update ,
New York Times ,
Chicago Tribune ,
Springfield hospital worker appeals to John Sweeney