Super Sizing the SEIU   Labeling it “The Power of One,” SEIU created one statewide union in California- 130,000 members strong.  SEIU union members from Locals 250 and 399 voted to combine the unions in the SEIU Healthcare Workers- West. Touting the ability to win better contracts through increased membership and combined resources, the merger is specifically aimed at bargaining power against Catholic Healthcare West, Tenet Healthcare and Sutter Health.  The merger is also seen as a way to make the locals more efficient and improve relationships between the Northern and Southern California organizers.

Editorial: YOUR BEST KEPT SECRET 

TBG has been successful working with organizations and advancing their union-free strategy read more...

STAFFING RATIOS ONE YEAR LATER

This month marks the one year anniversary of the first nurse-to-patient staffing ratio law .read more...

NLRB UPDATE

Healthcare Facilities Benefit from Sturgis read more.

Supervisory Conduct: Grounds for Setting Aside an Election read more.

Whistleblower vs. Concerted Activity read more.

SEIU’S 21ST CENTURY STRATEGY

SEIU plans to gain support for SEIU’s campaigns through the Purple Ocean.  read more.

SEIU’S 21ST CENTURY STRATEGY

Drawing from an extensive Internet network set up by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, whom the SEIU endorsed for president, SEIU has embarked on a campaign to bring one million people to support SEIU’s campaigns through use of the Internet –based group called the Purple Ocean.  “This is a radical and exciting new way to think about organized labor,” said Andy Stern, president of the SEIU—the largest union under the AFL-CIO umbrella with 1.6 million members.

The decline of union membership is sparking fierce debates in the labor movement about possible remedies and the future. Stern is one of a handful of union leaders unhappy with labor’s organizing efforts under AFL-CIO President, John Sweeney.

Speaking before last year’s SEIU International Convention, Stern unveiled his 21st century plan to change workers’ lives:

1. Build New Strength by Stopping the “Wal-Marting” of Jobs - Stop the business model of providing low wage jobs with few benefits, shifting jobs overseas to exploit workers under poverty conditions, and opposing workers’ freedom to form unions
2. Build New Strength by Leading a National Campaign for Quality Health Care for All
3. Build New Strength by Protecting Workers’ Free Choice  - Polls show that 40-50 million workers would choose to have a union if they could do so without employer intimidation. Laws protecting worker choice were created over 70 years ago and need to be modernized.
4. Build New Strength in National Unions That Match 21st Century Employers
   • Unite the strength of workers who do the same type of work or are in the same industry, sector, or craft to take on their employers
   • Ensure that workers are in national unions that have the strength, resources, focus and strategy to win in a defined industry, craft, or employer and should require that lead unions produce a plan to win for workers.
5. Build New Strength Where Unions Have Some Strength - AFL-CIO to concentrate resources and return back to the union half of what it now pays in AFL-CIO dues. This would provide over $2 billion over the next five years for uniting more workers.
6. Build New Strength Where Unions Have Little Strength Now
   • The AFL-CIO should help workers create new unions in sectors where they are needed and experiment with non-traditional forms of organization in industries with little history of unions.
   • The unions of AFL-CIO should jointly develop a strategy to help workers in highly non-union regions to join strong national unions for their industry or craft.
7. Build New Strength in Politics - The AFL-CIO should allocate at least 10 percent more resources to its political member-mobilization fund.
8. Build New Strength at the Local Level
9. Build New Strength by Drawing on Our Diversity
10. Build New Strength by Uniting a Global Labor Movement

Stern closed his remarks be saying “our future is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice”.