While SEIU might organize all sorts of workers in hospitals, it must, by practical necessity, function as a craft union when it organizes nurses. The NLRB and state labor relations agencies do not allow nurses to be in the same bargaining unit as orderlies, cafeteria workers, maintenance people, etc. So in this sense, SEIU functions the same as the CA Nurses Association. I am sure its nurses' contracts are similar to those of the CNA in many respects. And while it might be easier for SEIU to promote worker solidarity if it has nurses in one local and other hospital workers in other units, such solidarty is not guaranteed. Nor is it precluded in a CNA hospital. Craft unions have shown solidarity with all sorts of workers in the past. In any event the derogatory tone with which some CNA critics use the word "craft union" seems unwarranted here. CNA has taken strong working class positions on many isues, not least of which is national health care.
Maybe SEIU VP Eliseo Medina believes that CNA is like the Teamsters he used to fight when he was with the UFW. I don't see this. Actually I sense a lot of UFW authoritarianism in the way SEIU operates. I hope I am wrong here.
I do not see what is wrong with the CNA organizing nurses or what is necessarily good about SEIU organizing nurses in the first place.
Michael Yates