California Nurses Association Can't Take the Heat

I realize this is just a bitter, parting shot, Steve, but it's pretty twisted how gleeful you are at the idea that our female board members have groups of 4 or 5 male SEIU staffers coming to their homes to harass them.

And the question you have yet to answer about the Schwarzenegger-Nunez-Stern healthcare bill: why did 9 of California's 10 largest insurance corporations support it? Pick one: a) out of the goodness of their heart b) it guaranteed them billions in public subsidies and new profits out of a limited pool of care dollars. The fact is that most California labor unions and most Democratic Senators saw Fabian's bill for the what it was: a bad deal for patients.

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Going somewhere, Shum? Because I'm not. Maybe your bosses can send you to Ohio to go break up progressive unions.

Actually, most labor unions supported the legislation. Perhaps you missed AFSCME and SEIU at the press conference afterward hailing passage. Or perhaps the unanimous support of Assembly Democrats, including all of those who support single payer.

So go ahead and be proud of yourself for keeping 800,000 California kids without health insurance. I guess that's less important than your political agenda to boost members, which appears to be in serious trouble.

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Hey this is Nadia over at SEIU. Just want to insert a quick and important clarification here. "4 or 5 male SEIU staffers", while making for a good story, simply isn't true. It has already been clarified twice that 2 women--both healthcare workers from Ohio--came to California to visit CNA folks and ask for help in ending the nightmare that is keeping them from getting the union they fought for. They're here and here--have a look.

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It says a lot that Steve thinks having four or five people show up at the door of a woman living alone and start screaming at her through the window is "funny." Would you think that if it was your mother or daughter, Steve?

Here's what one of them said, a Long Beach RN. "I was home alone when I saw four people were staring at me through the window with a video camera. When they saw me they started screaming and trying to scare me."

In what world is that acceptable behavior?

As to labor support for the flawed health care bill, you are apparently experiencing amnesia.

There was more labor opposition to the bill than support, including not just CNA/NNOC, but also the California School Employees Assn., Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, Communication Workers of America, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Office and Professional Employees, Machinists, Engineers and Scientists, and the California Labor Federation (whose position was oppose unless amended).

Also opposing the bill were the League of Women Voters, Gray Panthers, California Church IMPACT, legislative arm of the California Council of Churches, and most of the Democrats in the State Senate where it only got a paltry one vote at its final hearing.

Chuck Idelson, CNA/NNOC

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SEIU clarified what really happened above your comment. Let's face it: the reason you put out a press release about it was to try to get attention to a non-event. CNA used to be pretty good at that, but fortunately the press corps now realizes that CNA is more interested in self-promoting media stunts than accuracy.

As for the health care bill, do you really want to go toe-to-toe on the endorsements? The Capitol rotunda was chock full of groups supporting the bill, from AARP to the Childrens Defense Fund. And more importantly, groups in between. It's called a coalition. It's called getting something done. CNA might want to try that sometime instead of being on the fringes of Nader-land.

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Let me start by saying that I am a kid of one of the nurse being stalked by SEIU. Its not a lie and in truth don't care if you belive me or not. But I will now stand by and let my Parent or the people that work with my parent be hurt in any form whether that is by people on the Internet or the ones at are front door and stay on the side line while this happens. SEIU has come to our homes and have done thing that are a crime and you think it is funny? If that is true all I can say is your are messed up in the head. Tell me Is is ok for a group of 10 people to be at your front door and not leave till they can in some way hurt you? AT one home they keep banging on the front door for over 20 minuets till some one tried to make them go away. They are defacing there homes and provoking a fight. In the hope that they can make them fight back all the while they have cameras and filming it all so that they late can go home and eddit it too look like they were not the bad guys. If this is true why where they at the families home in the first place? SEIU is desperate and are falling apart at the seams and are now trying just about anything to keep going. But I will tell you this, It will not work and in the end it will there folly them and you know why? They are hurting my family and I will never stand back and let anyone hurt my family. for in the end they are all i have and not once have they let me down. SEIU is digging there grave for I know I am not the only one that will stand up against them. If you do not belive me are think me wrong then do this look at if from Both sides of the story before you pass judgment For there is always more then one side to a what is going and if you cant even do that how can you tell the truth from a lie? But even then not every one will be swayed by what i say for they are to close minded and are set in their ways. To end this rant of mine by saying I will lend my voice and what ever els is needed to help CNA.

Vander Verason

side not: I will not say who I am or who my Parent is. Its not because I am scared for my self but I will not let my family be hurt.

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No doubt Steve will find this one funny as well. On Saturday night SEIU sent hundreds of its staff to a violently bust up a conference hosted by the magazine Labor Notes in Dearborn Mi., just because women leaders of CNA/NNOC were speaking on panels and at a banquet.

You don't have to just take our word for it. Here's what Labor Notes themselves said in a press release:

SERVICE EMPLOYEES UNION ATTACKS LABOR GATHERING CONFERENCE-GOERS ASSAULTED Dearborn, MI—The Service Employees International Union turned their dispute with the California Nurses Association violent by attacking a labor conference April 12, injuring several and sending an American Axle striker to the hospital.

A recently retired member of United Auto Workers Local 235, Dianne Feeley, suffered a head wound after being knocked to the ground by SEIU International staff and local members.

Other conference-goers—members of the Teamsters, UAW, UNITE HERE, International Longshoremen’s Association, and SEIU itself—were punched, kicked, shoved, and pushed to the floor.

Dearborn police responded and evicted the three bus loads of SEIU International staff and members of local and regional health care unions.

No arrests were made.

The assault took place at the Labor Notes conference, a biennial gathering of 1,100 union members and leaders who met to discuss strategies to rebuild the labor movement.

David Cohen, an international representative of the United Electrical Workers, asked protestors why they came. He said one responded, “they told us just to get on the bus.”

The protestors included several members with young children, who had to be ushered away when SEIU tried to force their way into the conference banquet hall. Protesters were targeting Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the AFL-CIO-affiliated CNA. DeMoro was scheduled to speak but declined to appear after threats were made against her union’s leadership.

Despite being welcomed to the conference earlier in the day—and given space to debate supporters of the CNA and the National Nurses Organizing Committee about neutrality organizing agreements—SEIU international and regional staff shouted down speakers at workshops and panels throughout the event.

“Labor Notes has always been a space for open debate, but when a union decides to engage in violence against their brothers and sisters, we draw a line,” said Mark Brenner, director of Labor Notes. “Violence within the labor movement is unacceptable and we call on the national leadership of SEIU, including President Andy Stern, to repudiate it.”

(end of press release)

And, on the health care bill, what exactly did you "get done." The bill was so flawed it only got one vote in the Senate Health Committee, and even Sen. Perata, a co-sponsor, withdrew his support.

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Labor Notes isn't some independent organization; it's to the left of the left -- just where CNA is. It's as irrelevant as CNA is in the legislature.

Btw, is CNA endorsing Nader again this time? Or was pissing off the Obama campaign with radio ads for publicity purposes the extent of your presidential political activity this time around. Since none of the candidates embraced CNA's health care position (except Dennis Kucinich, and we know how well he did), what is exactly that you're "getting done" besides denying millions of Californians -- including 800,000 kids -- health care?

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For an operative in the corrupt and conservative corporate Democrat Party like Mr. Maviglio, Labor Notes is 'to the left of the left' - a scary concept. Yes, anything that represents the interests of the working class over the corporate class is a threat to the Democrat Party. Apparently Maviglio endorses violence against union members if they are to the left of the left.

It would be great if the CNA supported Nader - the only candidate who supports single payer health insurance - rather than one of the corporate Democrats who want to keep insurance companies in control of health care. But that's not the issue. Maviglio resents the CNA because they took the lead in defeating the anti-labor agenda of Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2005 while the sell-out Nunez was cozying up to the Republican misleader. Nunez's incompetence caught up with him when voters rejected his blatant attempt to retain his speakership thru the phony term limits reform deal. Too bad Nunez will have to get a real job.

AB x1 was a sham and would have made things worse, but Nunez and Maviglio only wanted to claim victory and pretend they accomplished something for health care.

The corrupt Democrat party and SEIU are being sued by Ralph Nader because of their illegal and unethical tactics used to undermine Nader's 2004 campaign. For the Democrats, allowing alternative views and more choices for voters is a threat to their lucrative partnership with the Republicans and the corporate donors who fund both parties. They pass restrictive ballot access laws to deny competition, and the corrupt duopoly continues to destroy democracy and offer phony reforms while ripping off taxpayers, slashing budgets, and holding back real progress.

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Hey, Nadia over at SEIU here...

With all the back and forth about the protest at the Labor Notes conference, it’s time to set the record straight.

Here are the facts:

* Most of the SEIU members who traveled to Dearborn to express their disapproval of the CNA’s tactics were women. They were primarily home care workers, nursing assistants, and other caregivers. Some brought their children with them.

* They had gathered at the conference hoping to voice their disapproval of the CNA’s anti-union campaign in Ohio that stripped more than 8,000 hospital workers of the opportunity to freely choose whether to form a union with SEIU.

* Despite efforts to prevent the health care workers from making their voices heard, the rally was a peaceful one. Protestors talked to individual conference attendees about what happened in Ohio. They chanted “union busting is disgusting.”

* At no time did they engage in or witness the kind of activities described by the CNA.

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From the Girl in the Photo at Dearborn, Michigan

I am an organizer with SEIU 1199 WOK who was at the protest in Dearborn. I am from a union family. My dad is a nurse, and an SEIU member. I have seen my picture posted on the internet today, and used against me, my union and the people I care about. I want to tell you my story.

I have worked on the campaign to help CHP workers win fair organizing rules from their boss since I started working at the local in June, 2005. Knowing what it meant for the caregivers, housekeeping staff, maintenance workers, and all the other people I know who have been fighting for their union for three years – to watch that all go up in smoke due to the unprincipled union-busting of Rose Ann Demoro’s CNA was just beyond upsetting. I drove up to Dearborn, Michigan to protest the fact that an organization that says it’s committed to union democracy was honoring the architect of this union-busting as the keynote speaker at their banquet. And I wanted the real union people at the Labor Notes conference to hear what happened in Ohio, not the barrage of lies the California Nurses Association keeps putting out everywhere.

On the bus on the way to the rally, bus captains read a set of ground rules stressing our total commitment to non-violence. I planned on walking into the meeting room and protesting the CNA’s union busting in Ohio. Our group included many women and a lot of people brought their children. None of us imagined we would be assaulted by the men at the Labor Notes conference!

Once I was off the bus, we marched up to the locked glass doors and chanted. My sign was pressed up against the glass and I was watching a group of people with Labor Notes name tags pool together to watch us. We were all pressed up there for about a minute when someone opened the doors. I entered through the second set of doors and was heading toward the banquet room. Our plan, and my own goal, was to march peacefully into the board room and support our CHP Sisters as they spoke and handed out literature about their stolen right to vote for their union.

However, the CNA’s supporters in the room ran out to confront us and used physical force to prevent our group from entering the ballroom and voicing our dissent. After only a few feet I found myself dodging out of the way of getting tackled. They started to attack us. I ran past about three men who tried to stop me by tackling me. I was about 10 feet away from the ballroom room door at the point that I was slammed into the ground. A man twice my size tackled me (a football tackle) and used his weight to hold me on the ground to prevent me from reaching the door. My head slammed into the floor and I could hardly breathe from the impact. I am only 115 pounds so to have a man twice my size tackle me like a linebacker was something I never expected. Frank Hornick, another 1199 WOK staffer, came to my aid. The widely circulated photo of Frank (http://labornotes.org/files/images/seiuprotest.280.jpg) was taken moments before he helped me – what you can’t see in the picture was me on the floor being pinned down in front of Frank. Then all I could see were the shoes of the man that was trying to hold Frank back from freeing me. Frank pushed the guy off of me and I was able to take two steps forward until I was thrown on the ground again. Another man grabbed the hood of my sweatshirt and ripped me down on the carpet. My skull hit the ground before my feet did. I couldn’t breathe again. The neck of my sweatshirt was used to ground me. It was strangling me. He had a Labor Notes badge on, which is all I could see from the ground. My throat ached, and my necklace cut my neck. My hand was gashed and bleeding. I just remember pain after that. An organizer (and former member), Pam Callaham, pulled me back up off the ground by holding on to both of my shoulders. Once I was up again it only took a couple steps to be at the door.

Two days after this happened, I feel like I was run over by a truck. I still want to speak out about the CNA’s union-busting. I won’t be scared off by these thugs. I still want the Labor Note people to know who they invited to speak to them. Rose Ann Demoro – the union-buster.

But talk about adding insult to injury. Right now, I just want to scream. A photograph of me being assaulted by them, and yelling out in pain has been posted on the web by CNA bloggers as fake evidence of OUR treatment of women! I believe it was taken in the moment the Labor Notes or CNA man grabbed my hood. He’s behind me in the picture. (He did it from behind, I never saw his face, just his badge.)

They put the picture here, along with the photo of Frank trying to get to me while I am laying on the ground. http://www.flickr.com/photos/17855870@N05/241134810

So, that’s the story of the girl in the photo. Hurt or not -- I will not be silenced by the California Nurses, Labor Notes or anyone else.

Rachael A. Holland Organizer, SEIU/District 1199 WV/OH/KY

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One small problem with SEIU's attempts to blame someone else for their disgraceful assault on the Labor Notes conference -- all the witnesses not on SEIU's payroll know it was an assault by SEIU...

Here's the latest statement by the conference organizers.

SEIU International Attempts Disruption at Labor Notes Conference

As the 2008 Labor Notes conference banquet was beginning 200-300 chanting SEIU members and staffers marched through the side door of the hotel, nearest the banquet hall. The doors had apparently been opened from inside by SEIU staffers attending the conference (see below). Most were wearing the signature SEIU purple T-shirts; some carried signs denouncing the California Nurses Association. CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro had originally been scheduled to address the banquet, although her cancellation had been announced earlier in the day.

About 15 conference participants were acting as security at the banquet hall doors. When the chanting marchers entered, waving noisemakers, they and others quickly formed a double line in front of the doors, linking arms to block the way. Some participants were thrown to the ground by larger SEIUers. One protestor broke through the first line and, finding himself trapped between the two lines, flailed wildly. Former Labor Notes office manager Dianne Feeley, a retiree from American Axle, was pushed and fell, cutting her head, and was treated at an emergency room. Protesters continued to try to advance toward the doors, some nonviolently and others more aggressively.

Hotel security and Dearborn police eventually made their presence felt. They made no arrests. After chanting “we’ll be back,” the protesters returned to their buses (according to hotel security there were six buses).

Earlier, a number of SEIU staffers had disrupted workshops by heckling and attempting to shout down speakers from the CNA or its affiliate the National Nurses Organizing Committee. SEIU and CNA have long been at odds, often in direct competition to represent the same workforce and disagreeing vehemently over single-payer health care legislation, labor-management partnerships, and neutrality agreements that allow a union to recruit members without employer opposition. Their latest skirmish was over health care workers in Ohio.

Shortly after protesters left, SEIU’s national leadership issued a press release titled, “SEIU Members Stand Up for the Future of the Labor Movement and the Interests of All Workers.” SEIU Vice President Mary Kay Henry praised the demonstrators.

It is important to note that SEIU’s planned disruption would have frightened and intimidated hundreds of union members who are not party to their dispute with CNA. In the crowded banquet hall, in which there was barely room between tables; in the panic people undoubtedly would have been injured. As it was, the entire waitstaff, members of UNITE HERE Local 24, fled. We are grateful to the conference-goers whose quick thinking managed to keep the protest contained.

Labor Notes welcomes debate on any and all issues facing the labor movement, both at our conferences and in the pages of our magazine. But that debate must take place free from intimidation. Neither intimidation nor violence has a place within our labor movement. Whatever the original intent, bringing hundreds of people to behave in a confrontational way towards a union that leaders had branded as the enemy was bound to result in violence. Such actions cannot help the labor movement to grow. We call upon the officers of SEIU to repudiate such confrontations.

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