Sep 08 2010
Kaiser Workers Set to Choose Union
The biggest private-sector union election in nearly 70 years is set to take place this month. More than 40,000 healthcare employees of Kaiser Permanente will vote to choose whether they want to be represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) or the newly formed National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). The election is happening as a result of a decision by the National Labor Relations Board which was petitioned a year and a half ago by healthcare workers who wanted to be represented by NUHW. The battle between SEIU, one of the nation’s largest unions, boasting millions of members, and the newly formed NUHW which has only a few thousand members so far, has turned into a fight over local leadership versus national leadership, accountability, democracy, and union-management relations. As shop stewards and union organizers struggle to win over rank-and-file members, we turn today to labor analyst Mark Brenner.
GUEST: Mark Brenner, Director of Labor Notes
Find out more at www.labornotes.org.
SEIU’s Campaign for Kaiser is online at www.seiu-uhw.org/kaiser.
NUHW’s Campaign for Kaiser is online at www.kaisercoworkers.org.
One Response to “Kaiser Workers Set to Choose Union”
The Labor notes guy is clearly on one side of the debate. Would be good to have someone representing the other side as well. This is a very important debate