Author: Rachel Osterman

In an attempt to shift the balance of power in their favor, two union locals representing more than 130,000 health care workers statewide are consolidating to create California's largest labor organization, labor leaders announced Wednesday.

The merger of Oakland-based Local 250 and Los Angeles-based 399 comes as their parent, the Service Employees International Union, is pushing the labor movement to form massive, industry-based bargaining units that can pressure giant corporations.

"We need to encourage workers who do the same type of work to bargain together," said Andrew Stern, SEIU's national president.

The combined local, SEIU United Healthcare Workers/West, will represent lab technicians, cafeteria workers, licensed vocational nurses and certified nurse assistants, among others. The organization, which will be based in Oakland, said it will be the largest labor group in the western United States.

Although union officials said the merger will give them greater power, the two locals have already collaborated significantly, both in bargaining and in the political arena. Health care unions already exert considerable sway in California, thanks in part to shortages in key professions.

Some industry experts described consolidation as all but inevitable.

"First, insurance companies began merging. Then hospitals did the same, saying they needed to increase their bargaining power against the insurers," said Joanne Spetz, a health care economist with the nursing school at the University of California, San Francisco. "It absolutely makes sense for unions."

In the Sacramento area, Spetz said, just three hospital companies -- Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health and Catholic Healthcare West -- control 80 percent of all hospital beds.

Some hospital companies expected their relationships with the local to be unchanged by the merger. "We've been working with both locals for some time," said Mark Klein, a spokesman for CHW.

This spring, Local 250, Local 399 and another SEIU local negotiated a statewide contract with the chain that guarantees an average 20 percent increase in wages and benefits over four years, CHW said.

That kind of collaboration will only increase after the merger, leaders for 399 and 250 said. Both unions had already set labor contracts to expire during the same year, so hospitals across the state would face renegotiations at the same time. Unions will continue that strategy, leaders said Wednesday.

Employers had mixed reactions to news of the combination. Rick Malaspina, a spokesman for Kaiser, said both locals have a history of working closely with management. Under a labor-management partnership that Kaiser has with them, union representatives advise management on issues ranging from workplace safety to staffing, he said.

At Sutter, eight hospitals are in tense negotiations with Local 250, and a spokeswoman questioned the union's focus.

"SEIU Local 250 is concentrating on building membership rather than getting local hospital employees the contracts they deserve," said spokeswoman Karen Garner.

At least one critic said a megaunion could undermine the basic job of a union -- focusing on workers' grievances at their specific job sites.

"When you have a local union that's headquartered 500 miles way, something can be lost," said Nelson Lichtenstein, a director of the Center for Work, Labor, and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Sal Rosselli, the head of local 250 and president of the new union, said he will try to address the loss of intimacy.

"That's always a challenge in our union. But we're always getting better at it," he said, adding that technology makes it easier.

With 100,000 members, Local 250 is the larger partner in the merger. Local 399 has about 35,000 members, a spokeswoman said. In the Sacramento region, Local 250 represents 20,000 workers at Kaiser, Sutter and CHW hospitals, as well as nursing-home and home- care workers, Rosselli said.

Members of both locals approved the merger in voting that ended Dec. 11. At Local250, 91 percent of members who voted gave their approval. At 399, 98 percent did. Less than half of both locals' members cast ballots.

Alyce Foster, a secretary at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, said she voted for the merger because she wanted her union to grow stronger to secure higher wages plus a pension. "It'll help stick up for the employees and our rights, so that management isn't running over us," she said.

Legislatively, union officials said they will consolidate their power. They will fight for greater health care coverage in California and work with a separate union that represents registered nurses to increase nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.

Source:  The Sacramento Bee