Guest Editorial: Company Unions - The New Threat to the Progressive Labor Movement

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/_Guest_Editorial_Company_Unions_The_New_Threat_to_the_Progressive_Labor_Movement_5604.html

by Zenei Cortez, R.N.‚ Apr. 25‚ 2008

The controversial and failed effort by Catholic Healthcare Partners in Ohio to hand-pick a union to represent their employees is not a new problem for the labor movement - but a very old one. It's unfortunate that SEIU's resort to using violence in the wake of this defeat has distracted from the real danger in this situation, which is the new rise of company unions. The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee commits to working against company unions any time they threaten healthcare workers.


SEIU President Andy Stern

After the 1914 Ludlow mine massacre, John D. Rockefeller hit upon this perfect strategy for labor "peace": a union either controlled directly by the employer or which at least would agree to further the employer's interests-the company union. His maneuver undercut miner solidarity in the aftermath of the massacre and turned national attention away from the company's disgraceful record. Within just a few years, more than one million workers were represented by these phony unions, putting the entire labor movement at risk.

What Rockefeller proposed last century is being eyed today by hospital and HMO chains. We are entering an era of heightened healthcare unionization, which will result in either a progressive, democratic, movement of workers committed to better patient care or in a new wave of unions that don't stand up to employers so much as cuddle up to them.

That is exactly the scenario that Catholic Healthcare Partners faced in Ohio. They were in talks with both the AFL-CIO and SEIU, a stark contrast. The AFL-CIO remains America's House of Labor, and has become a more progressive and effective force in recent years. SEIU under Andy Stern, on the other hand, has embarked on a strategy of growth built on corporate agreements. Stern's deals with nursing home operators, hospital chains, insurance corporations, and the pharmaceutical industry have consistently placed the wants of his corporate allies ahead of the needs of workers.

Faced with this choice, Catholic Healthcare Partners dropped talks with the AFL-CIO, and made a back-room deal for a snap election with SEIU. It is noteworthy that CHP themselves filed for the election, most likely because of a distinct lack of worker support. Not only does Andy Stern's SEIU have a poor reputation among RNs nationally, but at this very chain, three years of organizing at five hospitals had only led to fourteen nurses supporting SEIU.

That's a failed organizing drive. By contrast, most union elections require a showing of interest of at least 30 percent of the employees.

FULL story at link.

[RufusTFirefly]

1. Strangely enough, this reminds me a little of the Oscars

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Oscar show were originally a cynical ploy (spearheaded by L. B. Mayer if I remember correctly) to steal some of the thunder from the growing union movement in Hollywood.