On March 19, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announced they had reached an agreement to work together to organize unorganized healthcare workers nationally, to push for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), and to support single-payer healthcare on the state level.
This came as a total shock as, one year ago, SEIU organized hundreds of members to storm an awards dinner at the Labor Notes conference where CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro had been scheduled to speak. One SEIU member died from a pre-existing health condition following the fracas and several members of other unions were injured.
This incident was the most dramatic element of an anti-CNA campaign launched by SEIU in response to CNA/NNOC spoiling a sweetheart deal SEIU had negotiated with Catholic Healthcare Partners in Ohio, where management petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a union election for SEIU. Generally, unions petition the NLRB for elections, not the employers.
This highlighted the widely differing philosophies between CNA/NNOC and SEIU on what it means to be a union. Andy Stern’s SEIU uses union structures to control conflict in the workplace, gutting contract standards as necessary to increasingly position itself as a labor manager for the employer.
CNA/NNOC has a solid record of building workers’ power to win strong contract language, organizing drives, and legislative reform on the state level.
In February, DeMoro wrote on the CNA website that nurses well know the history of SEIU in signing substandard, backdoor deals with employers that sacrifice the interests of RNs and patients and in suppressing union democracy Instead of focusing on passing [EFCA], millions of dollars of SEIU members’ dues have been wasted in trying to take over unions in California and control them from Washington.”
How Did We Get Here from There?
SEIU, for its part, had its hands full with a more pressing internal struggle. On January 28, the leadership of United Healthcare Workers-West, SEIU’s huge statewide California local, resigned and formed a new union, National Union of Healthcare Workers. The day before, SEIU had forced the local into trusteeship, essentially a hostile takeover, for refusing to split 65,000 nursing home and home care workers into a separate local.
Thousands of rank-and-file UHW members turned out to oppose the planned split and the trusteeship. SEIU, in keeping with past performances in Canada, Rhode Island, and elsewhere, imposed the trusteeship anyway, seizing union offices and assets.
CNA/NNOC had been supporting its natural ally, NUHW, by paying the health insurance benefits of its staff. CNA/NNOC has agreed to cut off all financial support to NUHW as part of its new pact with SEIU, a point not mentioned in the joint press release. Considerable SEIU resources can now flow from the fight with CNA/NNOC to that against NUHW.
Can three years of official peace with SEIU really be worth sacrificing principles, allies, and reputation for CNA? What will prevent SEIU from pursuing its corporate style business unionism? It is urgent that all those who oppose corporate and business unionism challenge these policies and campaign for fighting and democratic unionism.
What is the CNA?
The California Nurses Association (CNA), and its organizing arm outside California, the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), together represent 85,000 direct care registered nurses (RNs).
CNA reaches beyond winning strong contracts to involve its members in politics, organizing the successful campaigns for nurse-to-patient ratios, a ban on mandatory overtime, and whistle-blower protection for healthcare workers. It is currently working on single-payer legislation in California and elsewhere.
What is the SEIU?
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is the largest union in the country, with two million members including RNs, technicians, therapists, nurses aides, and service workers in hospitals, nursing homes, and home care across the country.
SEIU President Andy Sterns undemocratic leadership is increasingly challenged, as can be seen from the dissident websites www.nuhw.org (set up by members of UHW-West protesting against Sterns policies and tactics) and SMART (SEIU Member Activists for Reform Today) at www.reformseiu.org.