> And let's not get carried away romanticizing Dennis & 1199. They've
> done some good stuff, but lately it seems he's mostly been cutting
> deals with Gov Pataki and purging internal dissidents.
Granted that as an SEIU employee my vision might be tainted by purple-colored glasses, but to me it seems what 1199NY has been mostly doing lately is trying to build the union in Boston and Baltimore.
Boston Globe (Massachusetts)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service
August 4, 2006 Friday
SEIU may want to organize Beth Israel Deaconess
BYLINE: Christopher Rowland, The Boston Globe
SECTION: BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL NEWS
LENGTH: 815 words
Aug. 4--Employees at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center appear to be the first major targets of an organizing drive by a powerful healthcare union that wants to increase its presence at Boston teaching hospitals.
Beth Israel chief executive Paul Levy, reacting to recent signs of activity by 1199 SEIU, sent an e-mail to the hospital's staff this week warning of the anticipated union drive and reiterating his opposition to the union's tactics. The local, based in New York and part of the Service Employees International Union, has in recent days contacted an unknown number of the hospital's employees at their homes, conducting a job satisfaction survey and asking for their opinion of labor unions, Levy said.
The union also has requested public information about federal National Institutes of Health grants received by Beth Israel Deaconess researchers.
"What that has to do with union organizing is a mystery to me," Levy said in an interview yesterday.
"These are top-notch researchers whose grants have been reviewed by peer-reviewed panels and have won these grants through a nationwide competition," he said, "so they have been through incredible scrutiny in terms of their topic and how they spend their money."
In another sign of activity, according to Levy, the union has asked an obscure state agency, the Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority, which floats tax-exempt capital bonds for nonprofit institutions, for information about Beth Israel Deaconess finances.
The union did not respond directly to questions yesterday whether it is attempting to organize employees at the hospital. In a written statement, it suggested it asked for public information about publicly funded grants and bond debt as a way of monitoring how the hospital spends money.
"Advocating for quality care is about more than just improving healthcare jobs, it also means workers are proactively ensuring that public dollars are being used in the best way possible to improve the healthcare system," the union said.
The local won a foothold in Massachusetts last year through a merger with a local SEIU union. It has said it wants to organize Boston's prestigious teaching hospitals, which are largely nonunion with the exception of Boston University's teaching affiliate, Boston Medical Center, which already has a strong SEIU presence.
In the year since the union began its push into Massachusetts, however, it has not had a visible organizing presence at those hospitals. But that could be changing. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he supports the effort, citing the relationship between management and unionized workers at Boston Medical Center. SEIU provides good training programs for workers at that hospital, he said.
"I don't see any downsides to it, as long as there are open elections, and people can vote," Menino said. "You've got to convince me that it doesn't work."
At the same time, he cautioned SEIU against being too aggressive. He cited a long standoff at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, where SEIU used its influence with city officials to block city permits for construction of a new cancer center. The monthslong dispute was resolved in March.
"I don't want to have any disruptions like what happened in New Haven," said Menino. "I would not tolerate that at all."
In labor drives around the country, SEIU attempts to soften management's resistance with negative publicity, then asks for "neutrality" agreements that prohibit managers from criticizing the union during a signature drive or an election.
"A topic as important as unionization deserves a free exchange of views," Levy wrote in his e-mail.
"If the management of the hospital agrees to a neutrality agreement, that limits our ability to discuss the pros and cons of the issue. That would be at variance with the history and culture of this academic medical center, a tradition steeped in open dialogue and exchange of views," he said.
In its statement yesterday, 1199 SEIU said, "Just as our healthcare system needs to be fair and accessible to every patient, the election process for healthcare workers to choose to join a union needs to be fair and accessible as well."
Helen Zinter, a part-time administrative assistant in the hospital's Center for Violence Prevention and Recovery, said she was contacted by an unidentified caller who asked questions about her job. She said she did not know how she had ended up on a call list, and added that she was not pleased to be called at home on the weekend.
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