U.S. Labor News Roundup

High-Stakes Vote between Two Unions in California Health Care

Workers at Kaiser Permanente in California are voting this month whether to change unions, in the biggest union vote in many years. The choice is between the new National Union of Healthcare Workers and the Service Employees.

Kaiser is the massive nonprofit health plan and chain of medical facilities that dominates California medicine, with 7 million enrollees. Forty-five thousand of its 100,000 employees are eligible to vote.

The dispute between the two unions is over approaches to organizing and contract standards. NUHW leaders say SEIU's growth strategy is to offer concessions to employers if those employers will permit employees to join SEIU. NUHW opposes "partnership" with employers and has conducted many strikes to fight concessions.

A first vote between the two unions was held in September 2010 and SEIU won 18,000 to 11,000. Many members were afraid to upset a comfortable status quo and try a small new union. But the National Labor Relations Board threw out the result, because Kaiser management had colluded with SEIU to help SEIU win.

Now, in more than 300 clinics and hospitals, nursing aides, janitors, clerks, cafeteria workers, and technicians are voting again.

NUHW has more resources for this second vote, because it has affiliated with the California Nurses Association. And members have had nearly three years now, to see SEIU failing to enforce the union contract.

Winning the election is crucial for both unions. If NUHW wins, its membership will increase fivefold.

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Is the Private Sector Better, Cheaper? Not at All

It's become popular among Republicans (and plenty of Democrats) to decry public workers as overpaid and inefficient. They love to contract out, claiming the private sector can deliver services more cheaply.

But the reality is quite different.

Stacks of tax dollars are going to private "nonprofit" organizations that fail to follow their own missions. The case of mental health patients is one example. It is 20 years since Northampton State Hospital in Massachusetts closed its doors, after a state commission recommended shifting services to private companies.

This was supposed to save money. But a state audit showed that the restructuring produced a loss-and created big problems with the quality of services patients received at the for-profit facility.

Many nonprofits have chosen a corporate model. They handsomely reward upper management while refusing to pay direct-care workers a livable wage or decent benefits.

The CEO of one Catholic hospital was making $260,185 in 1995-while mental health counselors made $16,000. By 2000, the CEO's wages had almost doubled to $525,100, while the mental health counselors were at $18,000.

Privatization doesn't spell cost savings. It spells a chance for someone to skim a profit off our tax-funded public services.