NYSNA to SEIU: Stop Raiding Our Bargaining Units

Service workers' union should honor its delegates' 'no raids' demand

LATHAM, N.Y., June 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- It is ironic that
delegates at the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) convention
are calling for a national "no raid" agreement among nurses' unions while
its affiliate, 1199SEIU, is actively raiding New York State Nurses
Association bargaining units.

In a statement released by SEIU on June 4, the union's Executive Vice
President Mary Kay Henry was quoted as saying, "Nurse unions should work
together to win a fair process for the 85% of registered nurses in America
who don't have a union -- instead of fighting over the 15% who already do."

"SEIU pays lip service to cooperation in the labor movement while its
members are telling our nurses, 'we're going to take you over,'" said
Lorraine Seidel, RN, director of the NYSNA collective bargaining program.
"If they really want an end to raiding, they should immediately stop their
attacks on our bargaining units."

After staging an ambush at Peninsula Hospital in Queens in May,
1199SEIU operatives moved on to attempt to decertify the Nurses Association
at three hospitals in the North Shore/LIJ system: Plainview, Syosset, and
Franklin. It was literally a race against the clock as nurses' committees
negotiated a new contract while 1199SEIU members roamed the halls urging
RNs to sign petitions and cards. The new contracts were ratified, but not
before 1199SEIU members arrived in carloads in an effort to disrupt the
vote.

1199SEIU members are actively targeting the Nurses Association at
several other facilities in the metropolitan area. The Nurses Association
has not raided 1199 units; 1199's actions are in retaliation for NYSNA's
opposition last year to a proposed alliance between SEIU and United
American Nurses, a national union composed of state nurses' associations.

"This is old-style, brass-knuckle union politics, not the enlightened,
progressive image SEIU likes to show the public," Seidel said. "It's just
one more reason why professional nurses belong in a professional nurses
union."

The New York State Nurses Association is the voice for nursing in the
Empire State. With more than 36,000 members, it is the state's largest
union and professional association for registered nurses. It supports
nurses and nursing practice through education, research, legislative
advocacy, and collective bargaining.

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[Via Healthcare]