CNA/NNOC, SEIU Agree to Work Together in Bringing Voice to Heatlh Care Workers

Mike Hall, March 19, 2009 The nation’s two largest health care unions today signed a dramatic new agreement to work together to bring a voice to health care workers around the country and ramp up efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The agreement between the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) and SEIU, says CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro, provides a huge spark for the emergence of a more powerful, unified national movement that is needed to more effectively challenge health care industry layoffs and attacks on Registered Nurse (RN) economic and professional standards and patient care conditions. It will also strengthen the ability of all direct-care RNs to fight for real health care reform and advocate for improved patient care conditions and stronger patient safety legislation from coast to coast The two unions have been at odds recently over several issues, but, says SEIU President Andy Stern: We are lining up to make sweeping changes to this country’s broken health care system, and as we wait for the starting gun it is imperative that we put the past behind us and move forward by putting all health care workers in the strongest possible position to define reform, move legislation, and make the new health care system operational. SEIU represents about 80,000 RNs and several hundred thousand other health care workers in hospitals, nursing homes and home care. In a joint statement, the two unions said they will bring union representation to all non-union RNs and other health care employees and step-up efforts to enact Employee Free Choice. Under today’s agreement:

• The two unions will work together to organize nonunion hospital workers throughout the country, with CNA/NNOC as the leading voice for RNs and SEIU as the leading voice for all other hospital workers.
• The unions will launch an intensive national organizing campaign with an initial focus on the nation’s largest hospital systems.
• In addition to organizing, SEIU and CNA/NNOC will coordinate on a broad range of other issues, from bargaining with common employers to the campaign to enact the Employee Free Choice Act.
• SEIU and CNA/NNOC publicly endorse measures that allow states to adopt single-payer health care systems.
• Both parties will refrain from “raiding,” seeking to displace the existing members of the other’s organization or from interference in the other’s internal affairs.
• The two unions will create a new joint RN organization in Florida to represent current and future RNs of both unions. In all other states, SEIU will continue to represent their current RN members in collective bargaining.

from AFL-CIO BlogNow

Local 771 Meeting

Local 771 is having a meeting on Saturday, March 21st at 12:30 pm at MSEA-SEIU Headquarters in Augusta. The location is 65 State Street. The meeting is in the Board Room. Lunch is provided. At this meeting, we'll be discussing both bargaining units, Alpha One and Home Care for Maine. We'll be discussing the upcoming legislation that pertains to long-term care in Maine and the workers providing that care. We will be talking about SEIU's Change that Works campaign around health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act. There's also a couple of groups that 771 is discussing joining. One is Consumers for Affordable Health Care. We tabled this agenda item until this meeting. We had reached a consensus to join Consumers for Affordable Health Care, but there was a question of Kids First, MSEA's Family Child Care Providers Union, joining CAHC with 771. The other group 771 is considering joining is the National Direct Care Partnership, a coalition sponsored by the Direct Care Alliance. This partnership is tackling the issues of this workforce at the national level. Talking with our Congressional Delegation about direct care work is very important. Insurance Superintendent Mila Kofman made that recommendation to the Direct Care Worker Coalition last summer. She said that we should also be working on gaining health insurance for DCWs at the national level. I agree. That is why this is on the agenda for Saturday's meeting. This meeting is very important if you've got something you want to see in either contract. Both units, Alpha One and Home Care for Maine, have contracts that will be opening for negotiation later this year. You want something in the contract, come to this meeting and let us know what it is.

Holy Cow - I Did It! Testifying at a D.C. Symposium

Tracy Dudzinski What do you do when you get a call from the executive director of the DCA asking you to go to Washington, D.C. to tell the people at an Institute of Medicine symposium what it’s like to be a direct care worker? You panic for a second. You think: “Why me? What would I say?” Then you take a deep breath to calm your nerves and think: “Why not me? I am the expert in direct care, and people need to hear the voice of the worker if we are ever going to change things.” I told Leonila I would be happy to speak to the group. Then I panicked again and waited for a call from Elise, the DCA’s communications director. After our conversation, I felt much better. I went home that evening and wrote out my testimony. (PDF) I worked with Elise and she helped me make it as powerful as I could. Then we had a call with the people from the Institute of Medicine and I found out that I had to cut parts of my testimony, since it was 20 minutes long and it needed to be closer to 10. (And here I’d thought I wouldn’t have enough to say.) Cutting the testimony was really hard for me to do because I felt it was all important, but we finally figured it out. Once I came up with my final version, I practiced, practiced, practiced. The next nervewracking challenge I conquered was traveling alone. I have flown before, but never alone. But I did fine. When we got into DC, I could see the white capitol dome in the distance. It kept getting closer until we pulled up to the hotel and I was within walking distance of the capitol. WOW! Thursday morning I was nervous, but everyone tells me a little nerves are okay. Everyone was very nice and was happy that I was there. As the time drew near for my testimony, I started to have an “I am just a CNA” moment. The moderator for my session asked what was wrong. When I told her, she reassured me that these people wanted and needed to hear what I had to say. That helped calm my nerves. The funny thing is, I felt okay once I started speaking. As I looked out to the audience I could see that they were really listening to what I had to say. That made it even easier. After I was done, I had many people come up and tell me they were close to tears and I gave a very powerful testimony. If we want to make a difference, we need more direct care workers to step forward and become advocates for themselves. Any time one of us can tell our own story, it is much more powerful than having someone else talk about us. Look at me, a direct care worker from Wisconsin. I was able to tell people who can change things what I think needs to be changed. If you are asked to speak up, please step out of your comfort zone and take the chance. This has been a great learning and growing experience, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I hope I made a difference. Tracy Dudzinski Board Member, Direct Care Alliance Tracy is a fellow VOICES Institute graduate. It is so nice to see her evolving, pushing her strengths, and taking a stand by doing this. While at VOICES, Tracy worked really hard on an exercise at speech writing and delivery. I remember her being really worried that she could not give her speech in front of people. Well, look at her now! Go Tracy! VOICES is a great opportunity for Direct Care Workers to learn skills to do things just like what Tracy is doing. VOICES is a great chance to learn leadership skills. Tracy hits the nail right on the head when she says that if direct care workers want to see change in their working conditions, then "people need to hear the voice of the worker if we are ever going to change things." "If we want to make a difference, we need more direct care workers to step forward and become advocates for themselves. . .if you are asked to speak up, please step out of your comfort zone and take the chance."

Tracy is so right! If we want to make change, we need to be the ones advocating for ourselves. The policy makers, sitting at the State House, may think they know about direct care work, and what it is like, but they really don't. They need to hear about it from us.

Two MSEA-SEIU Members Lobby on Capitol Hill

Two MSEA-SEIU members, Linda Morris and Helen Hanson, took part in SEIU's Change that Works Worker Mobilization on Capitol Hill last week.

Helen Hanson, SEIU's President Andy Stern, Linda Morris

The Worker Mobilization was around the Employee Free Choice Act. Linda and Helen, along with Subira Gordon from SEIU and members of the Communication Workers Association met with members of Senator Snowe's and Senator Collins' staff.

Senator Snowe's staff was encouraging in that they agreed to meet with workers during the Congressional break in April. These workers will get to meet with Senator Snowe herself and talk to her about the Employee Free Choice Act and what it will do to help workers form unions.

Senator Collins' staff expressed the senator's concerns over the secret ballot and what appears to be a loss of it. The workers meeting with her tried to explain that the Employee Free Choice Act does not take away the secret ballot if workers choose to form a union that way. The Employee Free Choice Act lets workers form unions by a majority sign up or by secret ballot if they choose. It stops the wrangling, threats, intimidation that employers and managers put workers through when they are trying to unionize. It also allows contract negotiations to start without the delay tactics management often times puts their unionized workers through.

Many workers have formed unions, just to have their contract negotiations stalled because management refuses to meet with them at the bargaining table.

While in Washington, D.C., SEIU held a rally in Lafayette Park, right outside the White House. Dana Graham, MSEA-SEIU's former president, spoke about issues facing workers while CEOs continue to make huge incomes at the expense of their workers. He spoke of workers rising trouble with health care and how incredibly expensive it is getting to be. He mentioned a neighbor of his that was skipping doses of her medications in order that her husband could have his.

SEIU also picketed outside the US Chamber of Commerce, across the street from Lafayette Park. The US Chamber of Commerce and other big business groups and coalitions are against Employee Free Choice. It scares them to think that they may wake up one morning to find that their workers have formed a union to collectively bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

On March 11, the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced in the House of Representatives as HR1409. There was also a Senate hearing that day on Employee Free Choice. The committee that heard it was Health, Education, Labor and Pensions of which Senator Ted Kennedy is the chair. The full hearing can be found at the link above. The workers' testimony is excellent.

There was much more support in favor of Employee Free Choice than there was against it. We didn't get to hear the workers' testimony as we had to prepare for our meeting with Senator Snowe's staff.

The next step, here in Maine, is to get that meeting with Senator Snowe herself, and talk to her about what it is like trying to unionize and have management down your throat, watching your back side.

My story of joining the union has none of that intimidation. Managment at Home Care for Maine told workers that they were remaining neutral and that the choice was up to us. We did not suffer the intimidation and threats that many workers face when trying to unionize. We also were able to bargain our first contract within six months of forming a union. Not many workers have that success story.

Union Legislation Drive Begins in Congress

by Steve Greenhouse, New York Times, March 10, 2009 Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa on Capitol Hill Tuesday, March 10, 2009 Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, who plans to introduce a bill on Tuesday that would make it easier to form unions, said in an interview, “We have enough votes to pass the bill in the Senate.” But then Mr. Harkin acknowledged, “I’m not sure if we have enough votes to overcome a filibuster.” Showing how close the vote might be, Mr. Harkin said the bill would probably not come up for a vote until late April or early May, at which point he expects Al Franken to be sworn in as a Democratic senator from Minnesota. That would give the Democrats, including two independents, a 59-seat majority, but it doesn’t guarantee that all Democrats will vote with their caucus to clear the 60-vote filibuster hurdle. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, chairman of the Committee on Health, Education Labor and Pensions, is the main sponsor of the bill, and Mr. Harkin is the chief co-sponsor. The bill, known as the Employee Free Choice Act, would make it far easier for Americans to form unions by giving workers the right to unionize as soon as a majority of employees in a workplace sign cards saying they want a union. Business groups bitterly oppose the bill, fearing that it would create a surge in successful unionization drives. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have sent more than 150 business executives to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to lobby against the bill, denouncing it on the ground that it would allow unions to organize workers by largely bypassing secret ballot elections. Mr. Harkin was presiding over a hearing on Tuesday morning about the legislation, and hundreds of union members who were in town to lobby packed the hearing room to show support for the bill. Mr. Harkin and George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, are scheduled to hold a news conference after the hearing to announce that they are introducing the bill in their respective chambers on Tuesday. Mr. Harkin said he had about 40 Senate co-sponsors, while labor leaders say they expect Mr. Miller to have a majority of House members cosponsoring the bill. Democratic leaders and their labor allies may have a hard time securing the 60 votes needed to overcome a Senate filibuster because several Democratic senators who once supported cloture, including Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, have recently voiced ambivalence about the legislation. Moreover, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the one Republican who supported the bill in previous Congresses, has also signaled that he might not back the bill this time around. The wavering senators are the focus of intense lobbying from business and labor. Steven Law, the U.S. Chamber’s general counsel and the official coordinating the chamber’s campaign against the legislation, predicted that Republicans and business had the votes to ensure that a filibuster succeeds. “We got a jump on organized labor on this bill last year,” Mr. Law said. “As a result a number of senators who were said to support the legislation are showing buyers’ remorse.” In that category, he pointed to Senators Landrieu and Lincoln, as well as two other Democrats: Mark Udall of Colorado and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Bill Samuel, the A.F.L.-C.I.O’s legislative director, predicted in an interview that the bill would be enacted. “We’re confident it will pass the Senate and be signed by the president.” Mr. Samuel added: “I’m not surprised that some senators are saying they’re undecided because they’re getting attacked back home. It’s not unusual for a senator to say they’re undecided leading to a key vote.” At the hearing, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, denounced the bill, saying it should be called the “No Choice Act’’ because, he said, it would eliminate secret ballots. “If we’re looking for ways to be bipartisan in this town, this is clearly the most divisive issue in the Senate,” Mr. Alexander said. “It will divide us down the middle and slow down everything else that we want to work on.” Union officials respond that the legislation would not eliminate secret ballot elections because it would let workers choose whether to form unions through card checks or secret ballot elections. Under current law, management has the power to decide whether to recognize a union through card checks or secret ballot elections. Mr. Harkin said that enacting the Employee Free Choice Act was crucial to help rebuild the nation’s middle class. He said that under current law, it is far too easy for corporations to block unionization drives. “If you want to look at who built the middle class in America, it’s unions,” Mr. Harkin said.

Employee Free Choice Act just what Maine's economy needs

Maine Voices Making it easier to form a union will improve workers' odds of job security and prosperity. James J. Campbell, SR. and PENNI THERIAULT We write as a state legislator and a small business owner who share Mainers' deep concerns about the state of our economy. While the federal government enacted an economic stimulus package, more must be done if we are to rebuild the American middle class and emerge from this crisis. This does not mean we need more government spending. Mainers are fed up with Wall Street firms and giant banks getting billions of dollars in bailout money at a time when unemployment continues to rise, more families are losing their homes and health-care costs are skyrocketing. Instead, common sense solutions should be used to create good jobs that an support a family and put money back into our economy. Historically, no institution has been as effective at improving the quality of life for working families as membership in a union. Union members earn better wages, have better health-care coverage and can count on a more secure retirement than non-union workers. As current and former union members ourselves, we know that unions work. Who brought us the weekend? Unions. Who rose with unions? The middle class. It just makes sense. Tens of millions of workers would join a union if they could. The problem is that if they try, and their employer resists, workers have only about a 20 percent chance of success. This is because the current system for forming a union is unfairly tilted in the employer's favor. That's just wrong. It's un-American and one more example of greed and power run amok. That is why we believe it is essential for Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which will help Maine's economy get back on its feet by removing barriers to union membership and allowing workers, not just CEOs, to share in the economic success they help create on the job. The bill would enable workers to form a union when a majority of their co-workers sign cards indicating they want one. This puts the choice of how to form a union in the hands of workers, not corporations. Just as importantly, the act ensures that workers can freely choose to form a union without intimidation or harassment from their employers. And unlike the corporate bailouts costing taxpayers, and future generations of Americans, hundreds of billions of dollars, the Employee Free Choice Act doesn't cost taxpayers a dime. We are also both Republicans and some in our party oppose this bill. However, we do not view this issue through a partisan lens. We believe enabling more workers to form unions is about justice and fairness – bedrock principles that have guided our nation since its birth. For too long, big corporations have shunned these ideals and enriched themselves at the expense of America's working families. Today, the average CEO makes 344 times more than the average worker. So it is not surprising that CEOs and their Washington lobbyists oppose employee free choice. That opposition has taken the form of a multimillion-dollar is information campaign. The prime example is the role of the secret ballot election. Corporate interest groups claim the Employee Free Choice Act will eliminate elections as part of the union organizing process. This is simply false. The bill explicitly preserves and protects workers' rights to hold a secret ballot election when forming a union. The difference is that it is their choice whether to do so – not the corporations' or CEOs'. It is time to restore justice and fairness to our economy. Restoring the freedom of workers to form unions can play a central role in rebuilding a strong middle class that can drive the next era of American economic strength. When workers – from janitors to health-care workers – have been able to form unions, we see positive results for employees, for employers and for the public they serve. Representative James J. Campbell, Sr., R-Newfield, serves on the Health and Human Services Committee. Pennie Theriault is owner of Lots of Tots Child Care and president of Kids First, MSEA-SEIU. Published in the Portland Press Herald, March 12, 2009

Senate Committee Hears Testimony from Workers and Experts

by Seth Michaels Tuesday, March 10, 2009 A standing-room only crowd is watching today as the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee holds a hearing, “Rebuilding Economic Security: Empowering Workers to Restore the Middle Class,” that will take a close look at our economy, our labor laws and the need for the Employee Free Choice Act, which will be introduced in the U.S. House and Senate today. Sen. Tom Harkin opened the hearing with a powerful statement—greeted by applause from the large crowd—about the need to make sure the economic recovery includes everyone, by ensuring that workers have the ability to bargain for a fair share of the value they create. “The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into progress,” Harkin said, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. He said workers can’t get ahead unless they have the ability to choose a union and bargain. How do we craft a recovery that includes real workers? How do we make sure everyone can participate in our economy? It’s time to make sure that work pays. We win as an economy by having the smartest, best-trained workforce, and by making sure workers get a fair share of productivity gains. Unions can help us get there—they ensure a better, more productive workplace. They will help us rebuild our middle class. As we’ve been more unionized, workers have had a better standard of living. If you want to know what created the middle class in America, just look at unions. The committee will hear testimony from economic experts, as well as workers who have faced challenges in their efforts to form unions. Stay tuned for more blogging throughout the day. from AFL-CIO BlogNow