Stanford Hospitals and SEIU
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 HOSPITALS: BACKGROUND
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.
Labels: stanford hospital background, union organizing
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.
We are affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
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.
Labels: SEIU UHW
