> Yeah, the CNA recently pulled some astoundingly fucked up shit in
> Ohio. Very, very, very disappointing for what was once at least a
> very principled left-leaning craft union. I hate to say it but I have
> a feeling that a very, very ugly and drawn-out war between seiu and
> the cna has begun, and its going to get BAD. Which is depressing
> enough to obliterate any hope I was nourishing last year about the
> prospects for new gains in industrial unionism in the private-sector
> healthcare industry. I wish I had more contacts inside the CNA to get
> a sense of what internal dynamics have driven them to some of the lows
> they're reaching as they raid other unions campaigns. Maybe the
> strain of taking their program nationwide has put some unsavory
> characters in new positions of power in their organizing department or
> something. really, I predict a war between seiu and the cna that
> makes seiu's tiffs with afscme seem like the height of trade union
> solidarity.
>
> Ugly times ahead in the union movement in healthcare, people.
Ohio was much worse than a raid, in the sense that at the end of the day those workers were left with no union instead of a different union. I'm assuming you also know that the CNA is trying to raid the RN unit at St. Rose in Las Vegas (a wall-to-wall with SEIU). When there are 100,000 unorganized RNs in California, why would the CNA choose to expend its limited resources in this fashion? Given the conservatism the CNA's elitist brand of craft unionism, for the CNA it must be far worse to see RNs in the same union as mere dietary workers, CNAs and EVS workers than for RNs to have no union at all.
Nurses may bolt service union Petition by St. Rose SEIU members seeks representation by rival
By Michael Mishak
Thu, Mar 27, 2008
The Service Employees International Union faced an apparent revolt Wednesday as several hundred nurses at the three St. Rose Dominican hospitals filed a petition to switch to a rival union — even as the SEIU negotiates a new contract on the nurses' behalf.
The rival California Nurses Association would not disclose the number of signatures on the election petition it filed with the National Labor Relations Board. But organizers said the number exceeded the minimum required under federal labor law — 30 percent of an eligible bargaining unit. That means at least 330 of 1,100 registered nurses at St. Rose signed.
Supporters said the purpose is to gain more clout through a union that represents only nurses.
[ . . . ]
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/mar/27/nurses-may-bolt-service-union/