It’s a war that was started by then-SEIU president (and current corporate board member) Andy Stern when he put the then-SEIU-UHW into trusteeship. It then became an all out war. The angered officers of the SEIU-UHW bolted to form a new union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).
For the most part, over the last 18 months, the SEIU has been on the defensive, fending off a few raids from the NUHW, while being crushed in other raids. Now, in the biggest election in 70 years, the NUHW is going after SEIU’s biggest California employer, Kaiser Permanente.
The National Union of Healthcare Workers has petitioned for elections that would determine whether thousands of employees at Kaiser Permanente facilities could vote to join the upstart union or remain with the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West.
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The two unions have traded sharp words over the issue.
“Voting for NUHW would risk all the gains SEIU-UHW members made in a hard-fought, four-month contract campaign against takeaways by Kaiser,” SEIU-UHW said in statement.
NUHW countered, “SEIU has failed to represent Kaiser employees in the workplace, focusing instead on securing their own control of the union.”
Representatives with NUHW said the window to seek a vote is now because of when the original local contract was signed between SEIU-UHW and Kaiser. A national Kaiser contract was signed just two weeks ago, but a local contract expires in October 2011
As the battle heats up, check back here for updates.
