Stanford caregivers vote to join SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West
Stanford Hospital workers voted 3-to-1 on Thursday to join SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West (SEIU-UHW), requiring Stanford to recognize the voice of caregivers who have been united in SEIU for more than ten years.
September 11, Press Release
Stanford caregivers vote to join SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West
Workers win back recognition of their union in 3-to-1 victory
STANFORD, Calif.—Stanford Hospital workers voted 3-to-1 on Thursday to join SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West (SEIU-UHW), requiring Stanford to recognize the voice of caregivers who have been united in SEIU for more than ten years.
In July, Stanford Hospital claimed that the recent merger of a smaller union with the statewide SEIU-UHW meant they could stop recognizing their workers’ union.
“We formed this union so we’d have a voice to advocate for safe staffing levels and the resources and equipment we need to do our jobs, and Stanford management has used every opportunity they could to take our voice away,” said Robert Valenzuela, a patient transporter for more than 12 years.
“Today we voted to tell Stanford they can’t keep shutting caregivers out of important patient care decisions.”
State Assembly Speaker pro Tempore Sally Lieber was present when the votes were counted.
"This is a very important outcome for these workers and their families, and also for the community that depends on the quality healthcare they provide,” she said.
“It is going to have a positive impact on healthcare here in South Bay, because the input of frontline caregivers will be taken into account when decisions are made that affect patients and the community."
With more than 150,000 members, SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West is the fastest-growing healthcare union in the United States. We represent healthcare workers in all job classifications and all healthcare settings, including hospitals, homecare, nursing homes and clinics. Our mission is to achieve high-quality healthcare for all.
Caregivers gather outside Stanford hospital for a press conference after filing a request for an election with the National Labor Relations Board.
Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City, speaks to the crowd.
Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-San Jose, acknowledges her support to workers. The Speaker Pro Tempore was later blocked by security from entering Stanford hospital because she wore a purple UHW t-shirt.
Lieber and caregivers are blocked from entering the hospital to deliver an “open letter” to administrators.
A security guard prevents caregivers from entering the hospital.
Stanford and Lucile Packard workers gathered Thursday to announce they’ve filed an election request with the National Labor Relations Board. After a tense encounter with security, they also delivered to hospital administrators an “open letter” signed by 25 caregivers, urging Stanford to stay neutral and respect the wishes of the workers who have expressed their desire to join UHW.
STANFORD, Calif. – Security guards physically barred Assemblywoman Sally Lieber and union members from entering the hospital Thursday to deliver an “open letter” to administrators.
The letter, signed by 25 caregivers at Stanford Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, urges management to remain neutral and abstain from intimidating workers seeking representation by the state’s largest healthcare union, SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West.
“We went to deliver a letter asking Stanford to treat caregivers with respect and we got stopped by a wall of security guards refusing us entry based on our purple t-shirts,” said Lieber, who’s Speaker Pro Tempore of the California Assembly. “In the past, I’ve been invited up for lunch in the CEO’s office. Now, I can’t get past the double doors? Amazing.”
Earlier Thursday, UHW filed a request with the National Labor Relations Board for an election to formalize the representation that caregivers have indicated they want.
Stanford abruptly withdrew its recognition of the union on Tuesday, claiming a merger of SEIU Local 715 with UHW in 2006 dissolved its responsibility to bargain. The action by the hospital is the latest in a series of moves seeking to bust the union.
“Stanford is showing that it will stoop to the lowest level to deny caregivers their rights,” said nurse’s aide Caroldeen Tinay. “We deserve a voice on the job, but the administration is determined to silence us.”
Stanford and Lucile Packard caregivers voted for representation by SEIU Local 715 in 1998, but the hospital has been hostile from the start. When the union’s parent, the Service Employees International Union, merged five locals (including Local 715) into one, Stanford stepped up its anti-union activity.
Earlier this year, caregivers took it upon themselves to gather signatures on cards to formally authorize UHW as their representative. But Stanford has refused to recognize the union.
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The 150,000-member SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West is the largest and fastest-growing hospital and healthcare union in the western United States and represents every type of healthcare worker, including nurses, professional, technical and service classifications. Our mission is to achieve high-quality healthcare for all.
Since November 1998, some 1,400 caregivers at the Stanford hospitals have been represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 715. In February 2006, Local 715 entered into a formal agreement with its sister local, SEIU United Healthcare Workers – West (SEIU-UHW). Under this agreement, UHW, the California statewide healthcare workers local, provides services to SEIU members at the Stanford hospitals, including assistance in enforcing the contract between the union and the hospitals, representation before the National Labor Relations Board, and support in conducting other aspects of union business.
The Stanford hospitals have objected to SEIU-UHW’s role at the hospitals. Beginning in March 2006, the hospitals have taken an increasingly hostile stance to the union and unionized caregivers.
The hospitals have:
∙ Imposed new restrictions on legitimate union activities at the hospitals, in part by attempting to deny reasonable access for union representatives to meet with members, investigate grievances and observe working conditions.
∙ Limited their good-faith participation in agreed-upon mechanisms to resolve workplace conflicts, by refusing to meet with or respond to the inquiries of union representatives about contract violations, and objecting to their participation in arbitrations.
∙ Openly question the legitimacy of SEIU’s representation of its members at the hospitals, and retained the service of Laurance Arnold, widely viewed as one of the most vehement anti-union labor lawyers in Northern California.
∙ Withheld the union dues deducted each month from the paychecks of employees who are members of the bargaining unit, amounting to some $21,000 a month since March 2007, rather than forwarding those dues to SEIU.
∙ Walked out of a federal labor arbitration hearing, and threatened to boycott future hearings if SEIU-UHW staff are present, despite the appeals of the federal arbitrator.
∙ Informed workers that management will not honor the order of federal arbitrators to reinstate employees who are fired without just cause.
∙ Told workers that management no longer has to consult with employees or the union about staffing changes, because “the union no longer exists” at the hospitals.
Despite these provocative steps, Stanford workers remain committed to ensuring that UHW be recognized as the union of their choice. In January 2008, caregivers took the initiative to resolve the stalemate at the hospitals by gathering signatures on cards that formally authorize SEIU UHW as their union representative. SEIU UHW remains prepared to build a new and constructive relationship between caregivers and management at the Stanford hospitals, and to seek improvements in the current Stanford contract that would protect patient care and bring the contract up to industry standards.
Stanford Hospital and Clinics and the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital are part of the prestigious Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto. With a combined 713 beds, they admit approximately 33,000 patients each year, provide nearly 510,000 outpatient visits, and treat 42,000 emergency-room patients. In 2006-7, the hospitals drew revenues of $2.1 billion, revenues exceeded expenses by $337 million, and their net assets increased by $500.8 million, making them among the most lucrative hospitals in the state.
The hospitals’ front-line caregivers are the vital link between Stanford’s worldclass reputation and resources and effective care for their patients. More than 1,400 Stanford caregivers – including nursing assistants, technical, clerical and support staff – are members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Recently, the hospitals have taken steps that undermine not only caregivers’ working conditions, but also their efforts to protect patient care and assure quality staffing. These include:
∙ Safe and quality staffing:Stanford has refused to adopt the type of labor-management “safe staffing” committees used by many hospitals in California. These provide an essential voice for caregivers in staffing decisions, and neutral arbitration of disagreements. Stanford has also refused to contribute to a jointly-controlled employee training and upgrade fund, used by an increasing number of hospitals to help caregivers prepare for positions where there are shortages and to adapt effectively to evolving clinical practices, medical technologies and community needs.
∙ Job assignments:In late 2007, Stanford hospital managers announced that they would no longer consult with workers’ representatives about changes in job assignments and workloads. These include grueling work assignments in the transportation department that lead to increased absenteeism, and dramatically increased workloads for housekeeping staff, which threaten their ability to provide an infection-free environment for patients.
∙ Fair pay and benefits:Caregivers’ wages are 10 to 20 percent or more below those at other area hospitals (including Kaiser Permanente and/or Catholic Healthcare West) in a range of jobs, including EEG Technician, Cardiovascular Technician, Anesthesia Technician, Patient Transporter, Cook and Medical Transcriber. Stanford has also failed to adopt industry-standard provisions regarding caregiver pensions, retiree health benefits, and employer-paid health insurance for employees’ families.
∙ Nonstandard employees:Stanford makes extensive use of part-time and on-call employees to provide patient care, and has refused to end the practice of subcontracting. As of August 2005, for example, Stanford Hospital and Clinics employed 1,853 part-time and “as-needed” staff, accounting for more than a third of its employees and over 20 percent of employee hours. Extensive use of nonstandard employees and substandard pay and benefits make it difficult to retain the type of stable, qualified workforce needed to deliver quality care to patients.
∙ Workers’ rights:Stanford has rebuffed efforts by the caregivers’ union to begin a dialogue about how to build the same constructive relationship between caregivers and management that the union has developed at dozens of California hospitals. The hospitals have instead imposed increasingly restrictive practices limiting the access of union staff to carry out their representational activities (including having union staff detained and placed under citizen’s arrest by local police), and have withheld hundreds of thousands of dollars in caregivers’ union fees, rather than forwarding the funds to their union. Hospital managers have also announced that they would no longer take part in established procedures for arbitrating employee grievances, and would even refuse to honor decisions by mutually selected labor arbitrators to reinstate employees who were unjustly fired.
SEIU United Healthcare Workers West 150,000 Members Strong – And Growing!
Brief History SEIU United Healthcare Workers - West (UHW) was formed on January 1, 2005 after the members of Local 250 in Northern California and Local 399 in Southern California overwhelmingly voted to unify. Our 150,000 members work in every facet of the healthcare industry, including hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and homecare.
United To Win More than ever before, healthcare workers have come to see unionizing as a way to achieve an effective voice to improve their jobs and the quality of care they provide to their patients. UHW prides itself on being not only the fastest growing union in the nation, but we are also the largest and most powerful hospital and healthcare union west of the Mississippi, surpassed only by SEIU 1199 in New York on the east coast.
Setting The Standard UHW members have fought hard and won unprecedented standards for jobs and quality of care. For example, members who work in hospitals have achieved a voice in patient care issues, a multi-million dollar training and education fund, no-cost health insurance for their families, good retirement plans, job security and competitive wages. This is a standard that our members are working hard to secure for ALL healthcare industry workers.
Political Power The members of UHW have the most powerful political voice for worker rights and healthcare reform in California. In the most recent election cycle, UHW registered thousands of members to vote, and thousands of members volunteered for precinct walking, phonebanking, door-knocking, literature distribution and get-out-the vote efforts. UHW members have played the leading role, and in many cases a decisive role, helping to elect pro-worker candidates.
To help achieve our electoral and legislative goals, UHW has set up a Patient and Healthcare Worker Defense Fund of $1 million per year to pay for political education and mobilization.
A Vision For The Future UHW has a clear and definitive vision for reforming the healthcare system throughout the state of California and beyond. Backed by formidable resources and a high level of member involvement, we are poised to continue to win notable gains for our members the general public who depend upon our healthcare workers for quality medical care.
About Organizing Campaign: Our 150,000 members work in every facet of the healthcare industry, including hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and homecare.
UHW members have fought hard and won unprecedented standards for jobs and quality of care.
