By Doug Cunningham

Are secret agreements on union organizing between union leaders and companies good or bad for workers? That’s a central question being raised by SEIU and UNITE-HERE’s secret deals with employers that designate which workers in a company can be organized while giving up the union right to strike. UNITE-HERE President, Bruce Raynor told the Wall Street Journal that these deals are a major advancement for the labor movement that have brought tens of thousands of workers into unions. But dissidents within organized labor say they are top-down deals that exclude rank and file workers and that too much often can be sacrificed in return for simply increasing union member numbers. SEIU and UNITE-HERE have such secret deals with Sodhexo and Compass and possibly other companies. The Wall Street Journal says the agreements give these companies the right to pick which of their facilities can be organized and which can’t. SEIU’s Andy Stern says these deals were crafted because the old ways of organizing weren’t working and under these deals workers are guaranteed a union voice.

By Doug Cunningham

SEIU is fighting for thousands of Boston hospital workers who want a union to improve their working conditions, advocate for patients and secure good health care and retirement benefits. Mike Fadel is a Vice-President with 1199SEIU in Boston.

[Fadel]: “They're coming together to change that, to make life better for themselves, for their families, for their patients, and ultimately for the entire city. There's just a growing civic consensus among elected officials and community leaders that there's no reason for the hospitals to interfere with these caregivers' right to freely exercise their choice to form a union."

By Doug Cunningham

SEIU's Andy McDonald says after being served with a lawsuit, the union’s United Healthcare West California local officers have returned $2.8 million from a special fund that they had been created. But SEIU says that still leaves $245,000 to be returned.

[McDonald]: “We want to wrap this up quickly. We want to get this money returned to UHW members and back under the financial safeguards of the constitution and federal law. We want to make sure that members have a full accounting of what happened. That should be able to happen quickly. We’re hopeful.”

United Healthcare West says the lawsuit is a “PR circus”

By Doug Cunningham

SEIU International has sued its California United Health Care West affiliate in federal court, alleging financial misconduct against ten officers of the California local. The suit alleges that UHW-W President Sal Rosselli and nine other officers diverted $3 million of UHW-W dues money to a fund they created and control.

The suit accuses the UHW-W officers of creating the fund under false pretenses to have access to money to fight any attempt by SEIU International to take over the local union.

SEIU International spokesperson Andrew McDonald says, “The highest ranking UHW-W officers used millions of dollars in members’ dues money to run a shadow operation off the books and they intentionally deceived their own members and the federal government about how the money would be used." Rosselli calls the suit a “PR circus” and a waste of dues money.

By Doug Cunningham

SEIU International has sued its California United Health Care West affiliate in federal court, alleging financial misconduct against ten officers of the California local. The suit alleges that UHW-W President Sal Rosselli and nine other officers diverted $3 million of UHW-W dues money to a fund they created and control.

The suit accuses the UHW-W officers of creating the fund under false pretenses to have access to money to fight any attempt by SEIU International to take over the local union.

SEIU International spokesperson Andrew McDonald says, “The highest ranking UHW-W officers used millions of dollars in members’ dues money to run a shadow operation off the books and they intentionally deceived their own members and the federal government about how the money would be used." Rosselli calls the suit a “PR circus” and a waste of dues money.

By Doug Cunningham

A California judge is temporarily barring SEIU members and SEIU President Andy Stern from following, threatening or stalking “officers, directors and staff” of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee. Judge Jon Rantzman is having SEIU appear in court May 1 to consider a three-year injunction.

The California Superior Court temporary injunction prohibits SEIU and its president, Andy Stern, from following or threatening CNA/NNOC staff, officers or directors at work, in hospitals, clinics, offices and homes.

The CNA says SEIU members had come to the homes of at least five CNA board members unannounced. CNA says they pounded on doors, yelled and pointed cameras at CNA members.

A strike by building workers in the Bronx was narrowly averted early Thursday morning. Jesse Russell reports:

As of late Wednesday nearly 4000 maintenance workers, porters, and doormen in the New York City borough of the Bronx were ready to walk off the job. However, a last minute deal reached between their union SEIU Local 32BJ and the Bronx Realty Board averted that strike. If the workers had walked out, more than 300 buildings could have felt the impact. The new contract will give the workers a wage increase of roughly $20 per week as well as increase pensions and improve worker training programs and health care. Local 32BJ Executive Vice President, Kyle Bragg said he was thinks the workers will ratify the new contract:

By Doug Cunningham

So what’s really going on between the SEIU and the California Nurses Association in the organizing effort at Catholic Healthcare Partners in Ohio? Peggy Vaughn is an RN in Ohio supporting SEIU’s three year effort to organize nurses and workers there. She says SEIU got a neutrality agreement with the employer after a long struggle and the elections that was scheduled was no back-room, sweetheart deal. And she says CNA organizers interjected themselves at the last minute to derail the election.

[Vaughn]: “I think it's reprehensible that an organization that claims to be pro-worker would do no work at all for organizing and come in the last minute and try to sabotage an election. I personally resent is as a worker. I think they should be held accountable."

By Doug Cunningham

In Ohio, Catholic Healthcare Partners has cancelled an SEIU union election in what had been a top-down deal between SEIU and the hospital chain. Jill Furillo of the California Nurses Association says her union has been working directly with the 8,000 nurses at Catholic Healthcare Partners but the nurses had not been working with SEIU to get a union.

[Furillo]: "There was not one nurse that had any knowledge of this deal that SEIU was working with Catholic Healthcare Partners. SEIU believes in these labor-management partnerships, that somehow or other you can be best friends with corporate bosses and somehow that's going to help workers.

By Doug Cunningham

The Service Employees International Union is pouring resources into Democratic presidential primaries on behalf of Barack Obama in Texas and Ohio. SEIU has spent at least $1.4 million so far, and will spend more time and money reaching out to its members to vote for Obama. Meanwhile in Minnesota, the SEIU is endorsing Al Franken to be the Democratic Farmer Labor Party candidate for U.S. To win the Democratic nomination, Franken must be endorsed by DFL delegates at the party’s convention in June and then win a primary election in order to face incumbent Republican Senator, Norm Coleman in November.

By Jesse Russell

Thousands of private security guards in Los Angeles could be the beneficiaries of an important deal struck between property management companies and the Service Employees International Union. The deal would boost security guard pay and benefits by 40 percent. Los Angeles Mayor Antonion Villaraigosa called the deal "historic". The security guards are expected to vote to approve the deal January 26th.

SEIU Houston janitors will soon celebrate a triumphant anniversary.

Next week will mark the historic victory in which SEIU janitors in Houston won their first contract. On the heels of this anniversary, janitors along with their families and community supporters announced the launch of yet another campaign in the Lone Star State. Their target this time, as activist Maria Jimenez shares, is ARAMARK.

[Jimenez]: "Today, we are inspired to see ARAMARK workers taking on their own fight for a better future. Just as we stood with Houston janitors, we
are readyto stand beside ARAMARK workers!"

Local 1199/SEIU and Yale New Haven Hospital have been locked in a ten-year battle over the unionization of the hospital’s 1,800 service workers. The neutral arbitrator chosen by both sides to settle any disputes arising from the parties’ historic election conduct agreement of April, 2006 ruled last week (Oct. 23) that the hospital must pay a $4.5 million fine for egregious violations of that agreement, and half the money will go directly to the workers. But the ruling also contained some bad news for the organizing effort. Melinda Tuhus reports from New Haven, Connecticut.

"In her Final Report on Remedies, issued October 23, arbitrator Margaret M. Kern wrote, 'The employees were victimized by the employer’s unfair labor practices, which were instigated by a team of consultants the hospital hired.' She ruled that Yale New Haven must pay the union $2.3 million reimbursement for its organizing expenses, and $2.2 million directly to the workers, which was the amount the hospital paid its outside consultants. That comes out to about $1,300 for each worker eligible for the bargaining unit. But she declined to grant the union’s request for a bargaining order."

By Doug Cunningham

Hundreds of workers and their unions from a broad spectrum of public and private sectors rallied in Wisconsin’s capital Wednesday in support of adequate state funding of public services. Wisconsin is the only state in the nation without a new budget because Republicans are blocking any increases in public services. AFSCME’s Marty Beil says this budget battle transcends so-called partisan “bickering”.

[Beil]: “There's huge differences in terms of values between the Democratic view of continuing the values and what the future lies for Wisconsin and the Republicans and what they think the values ought to be. So it isn't mere bickering. It's not kids fightin' with each other. We're battling for the heart and soul of Wisconsin."

By Doug Cunningham

The SEIU has decided not endorse any Democratic presidential candidates in the primary. SEIU says any of the top three Democratic candidates would help create a new American Dream for working families. SEIU locals are free to endorse candidates in individual states, but the national SEIU won’t endorse.

The John Edwards campaign says it expects to get SEIU locals around the country to endorse Edwards, But Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have also been aggressively seeking SEIU’s endorsement.

Edwards has the endorsements of the United Steelworkers , United Mine Workers of America , the Carpenters union and the United Transport Workers. Sen. Hillary Clinton has been endorsed by the National Association of Letter Carriers, the American Federation of Teachers, the International Association of Machinists and the United Transportation union and the International Union of Bricklayers.

By Doug Cunningham

SEIU President Andy Stern says polls show 57 percent of American workers want a union, yet the percentage of unionized jobs is declining. To understand what’s happening, Stern says, you have to get a fix on what happens in union organizing campaigns.

[Stern]: “So why? There is a reason. It’s because 91 percent of companies require their workers to go to anti-union meetings. Eighty percent of people train their supervisors not to educate, but to intimidate their workers. Fifty percent threaten to shut down their jobs. And if that’s not enough, 31 percent of the employes in campaigns today fire – fire – union workers.”

Security guards in San Francisco are prepared to strike if negotiations don’t go as planned. On Saturday, the guards represented by the Service Employees International Union local 247 gave negotiators strike leverage as they prepare to return to the bargaining table with three bay area security companies. The workers are seeking better pay and training. According to the SEIU, San Francisco security guards make on average $11.30 per hour while their janitorial counterparts earn on average $11.49 per hour.

After a 20-month investigation a federal report slams the Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middleton – citing failures across the board. The report cites inadequate documentation concerning the use of restraints, a failure to reduce the number of suicides, and inappropriate treatments on patients. The report was conducted by the civil rights branch of the Justice Department.

On Friday, workers represented by the health care division of the Service Employees International Union gathered near the mental health facility and
called on Connecticut Governor, Jodi Rell, to address issues of short staffing and poor training standards. The union alleges that workers are often are forced to work overtime to make up for short staffing, are impacted by a high rate of on-the-job injuries, and are under-trained. A second rally is planned for Wednesday. The state has one month to respond to the report or it could face a lawsuit from the Justice Department.

Health care workers in Connecticut went back to work on Sunday after a short strike against Sunrise Northeast. The picket lines went up on Friday. Represented by the Service Employees International Union, no deals were reached during the strike. Sunrise Northeast provides services for the Connecticut Department of Mental Retardation. Twenty-three homes were picketed this weekend and discussions are expected to continue starting today.

Should superior court workers be allowed to wear union buttons at work? Workers represented by the Service Employees International Union in Sonoma County California think so. They have filed an unfair labor practices complaint after they were ordered to remove pins that expressed solidarity with the SEIU. The court said the order was necessary because a court requires an appearance of neutrality.