Advertisement
With 11 contested ballots still in dispute, the count in the latestelection tallied early Thursday morning stood at 392 for SEIU Local 1107 to390 for CNA/NNOC.
Advertisement
"In the light of collusion by their employer, a massive campaign ofintimidation and illegal threats by SEIU staff, and labor board misconduct inthe election, this vote is a stunning repudiation of SEIU," said CNA/NNOCorganizing director David Johnson.
"We are all extremely proud of the courageous St. Rose RNs who defied anugly campaign and made clear once again their strong desire to join with10,000 Catholic Healthcare West RNs already represented by CNA/NNOC in Nevadaand California," said Allen Fitzpatrick, RN, a CNA/NNOC Board member and chairof the union's CHW RN division.
"This election shows again, we SRD RNs want change. We want to be unitedwith our CHW 10,000 colleagues in a real professional RN union that fights forpatient care. This isn't over," said Lalain Blanco, a St. Rose RN.
"St. Rose RNs will be part of the CNA/NNOC family soon," said JillFurillo, RN, CNA/NNOC's Nevada and Catholic division director. "SEIU had itslast, best chance with this vote, they had all the conditions in their favor,and they still failed," Furillo noted.
Last May, the RNs voted to leave SEIU and join CNA/NNOC by a vote of 400to 377 with 26 votes for no union. SEIU then used an array of legal tactics totry to overturn the vote. CHW handed SEIU a sweetheart contract despite theobvious evidence that RNs no longer wanted the service union, Johnson noted.
In the final hours leading up to the vote, Johnson said, SEIU "illegallythreatened RNs with pay and benefit losses if they voted for CNA/NNOC andengaged in its usual pattern of intimidation and harassment of nurses." Henoted there were also substantial problems with the labor board's conduct ofthe election that will be detailed in coming days.
CNA/NNOC is the largest and fastest-growing organization of RNs in theU.S. with 80,000 members in all 50 states.
SOURCE California Nurses Association
