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Organizing Roundup: CWA Gains in Health Care and Public Safety
A rash of organizing victories has brought CWA representation to more than 600 workers since the end of May.
They organized to improve patient care and to have a voice in their working conditions, District 1 Organizing Coordinator Tim Dubnau said.
Nurses complained that the employer often forced them to "float" to other units without proper training, endangering patients and putting their licenses in jeopardy. They also objected to "flexing," a company policy of sending nurses home without pay if the patient level was low in a particular unit. And some, particularly those at the Behavioral Health center, feared for their safety, having to work at night near patients with serious psychological problems without proper protection.
The company brought in Yessin and Associates, a well known anti-union consultant based in Florida, and ran what nurses called a campaign of fear and intimidation.
"Management spent a lot of money on Yessin, to try to spread misinformation about the union, but we nurses stuck together," said Teena Bittay from the emergency room. "In the end all the threats and lies could not break our unity."
District 3 Organizing Coordinator Hugh Wolfe credited Local 3806 President Mike Bennard and local organizers, as well as National Coalition of Public Safety Officers-CWA Director John Burpo, Booker Lester, administrative assistant to the District 3 vice president, and CWA Representative Thelma Dunlap for work on the police dispatchers campaign.
Bennard said the group found CWA via the international's website and followed its links to District 3.
"We worked on the campaign for about six months, with meetings at the union hall," Bennard said.
Management played with both the time and location of the election in an attempt to make it difficult for the workers, staggered over three shifts, to vote, and had selected a voting location about 30 minutes from the workplace.
"They originally had it 1-5 p.m., which made it so the third shift couldn't vote at all. We were able to overcome that, and ended up with a location about five minutes from their place of reporting," Bennard said. The four-hour period allotted for voting was split into two-hour periods of 8-10 a.m. and 3-5 p.m. to accommodate all shifts.
He said Mindy Funderberg, chair, and an internal organizing committee of about six people "were extremely organized and very thorough" in explaining the union to their co-workers.
Local 9415 organizers Sharon Osgood and Yonah Diamond worked on the Kaiser Permanente campaign, with assistance from District 9 Organizing Coordinators John Dugan and Libby Sayre, and Virginia Rodriguez-Jones, administrative assistant to Bixler.
The campaign lasted nearly three years, culminating in an election held May 4. Management appealed, and the National Labor Relations Board conducted five weeks of hearings to determine whether the unit was appropriate.
"It was grueling," said Diamond, who was present for about two weeks of the hearings. "Kaiser rolled out lawyer after lawyer to try to blow us out of the water. First they tried to say our people were part of a larger unrepresented group throughout Northern California. Then they tried to say the work was clerical and should be covered by a different union. They lost on both those counts."
He credited call center worker Janice Dorsey for much of the worker-to-worker contact over the last year and for testifying at the hearings along with co-workers Regina Oliver, LeMar Harris and Brenda Hill.
- Registered nurses at two medical centers operated by the St. Barnabas Health Care System, New Jersey's largest health-care delivery system and second-largest private employer, overcame an aggressive anti-union campaign to organize with the New Jersey Nurses Union/CWA Local 1091, District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino reported. The May 28 vote was 190-134 for CWA, with 15 challenged ballots.
- District 3 Vice President Jimmy Smith announced victory in a representation election on June 8 for 112 dispatchers and communications workers for the Memphis Police Department. Of 92 votes cast, all went for CWA.
- On May 27, District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler announced a win for 178 call center workers at the human resources center for Kaiser Permanente Health Plan. The vote, which took place several weeks earlier when the ballots were impounded, was 81-52 for CWA, with 15 challenged and 1 voided ballot.
They organized to improve patient care and to have a voice in their working conditions, District 1 Organizing Coordinator Tim Dubnau said.
Nurses complained that the employer often forced them to "float" to other units without proper training, endangering patients and putting their licenses in jeopardy. They also objected to "flexing," a company policy of sending nurses home without pay if the patient level was low in a particular unit. And some, particularly those at the Behavioral Health center, feared for their safety, having to work at night near patients with serious psychological problems without proper protection.
The company brought in Yessin and Associates, a well known anti-union consultant based in Florida, and ran what nurses called a campaign of fear and intimidation.
"Management spent a lot of money on Yessin, to try to spread misinformation about the union, but we nurses stuck together," said Teena Bittay from the emergency room. "In the end all the threats and lies could not break our unity."
District 3 Organizing Coordinator Hugh Wolfe credited Local 3806 President Mike Bennard and local organizers, as well as National Coalition of Public Safety Officers-CWA Director John Burpo, Booker Lester, administrative assistant to the District 3 vice president, and CWA Representative Thelma Dunlap for work on the police dispatchers campaign.
Bennard said the group found CWA via the international's website and followed its links to District 3.
"We worked on the campaign for about six months, with meetings at the union hall," Bennard said.
Management played with both the time and location of the election in an attempt to make it difficult for the workers, staggered over three shifts, to vote, and had selected a voting location about 30 minutes from the workplace.
"They originally had it 1-5 p.m., which made it so the third shift couldn't vote at all. We were able to overcome that, and ended up with a location about five minutes from their place of reporting," Bennard said. The four-hour period allotted for voting was split into two-hour periods of 8-10 a.m. and 3-5 p.m. to accommodate all shifts.
He said Mindy Funderberg, chair, and an internal organizing committee of about six people "were extremely organized and very thorough" in explaining the union to their co-workers.
Local 9415 organizers Sharon Osgood and Yonah Diamond worked on the Kaiser Permanente campaign, with assistance from District 9 Organizing Coordinators John Dugan and Libby Sayre, and Virginia Rodriguez-Jones, administrative assistant to Bixler.
The campaign lasted nearly three years, culminating in an election held May 4. Management appealed, and the National Labor Relations Board conducted five weeks of hearings to determine whether the unit was appropriate.
"It was grueling," said Diamond, who was present for about two weeks of the hearings. "Kaiser rolled out lawyer after lawyer to try to blow us out of the water. First they tried to say our people were part of a larger unrepresented group throughout Northern California. Then they tried to say the work was clerical and should be covered by a different union. They lost on both those counts."
He credited call center worker Janice Dorsey for much of the worker-to-worker contact over the last year and for testifying at the hearings along with co-workers Regina Oliver, LeMar Harris and Brenda Hill.