Kaiser workers to vote on replacing SEIU union
By Victoria Colliver
August 31, 2010
San Francisco Chronicle
SFGate.com
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/31/MNPH1F23SQ.DTL

More than 44,000 Kaiser Permanente employees
are set to vote next month in what is expected
to be the largest private-sector union election
since the United Auto Workers organized
Ford Motor Co. in 1941.

But they're not voting on whether to join a union -
they're already organized by the powerful Service
Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers
West. In an unusual battle between labor unions, the
employees will vote on whether to stick with SEIU or
join the upstart National Union of Healthcare Workers.

Kaiser workers will have from Sept. 13 until Oct. 4 to
cast mail-in ballots, which could shape the landscape
for health care workers not only in the giant Kaiser
organization but statewide. Workers at Catholic
Healthcare West, another large hospital chain, are
expected to vote after the Kaiser workers, and
eventually Sutter Health workers will weigh in.

SEIU, one of the most powerful unions in the country,
represents 2.2 million members nationwide - 700,000 of
those workers are in California, including 150,000 in
its health care unit. Taking its nearly 45,000 Kaiser
workers into the fold would be a pretty mean feat for
an 18-month-old union that has just 6,000 members.

(For the full text go to
 http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgif=/c/a/2010/08/31/MNPH1F23SQ.DTL or the link above.)

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