DEARBORN, MI – The stakes for control of labor organizing in healthcare organizations grew last month after a confrontation between members of two union groups in Dearborn, Mich.
The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee said members of the Service Employees International Union broke into a room where the group was participating in an independent union conference. A speaker at the conference canceled her appearance, and several people were injured, one requiring hospital treatment.
CNA/NNOC also is charging that SEIU members are stalking and harrassing CNA/NNOC registered nurse board members at their homes in California, among other practices.
The two groups have waged a increased war of words in recent weeks. The SEIU has charged that CNA/NNOC interfered with a union election involving nurses at Catholic Healthcare Partners of Ohio. CNA/NNOC has been vocal in charging that SEIU unionization efforts are in complicity with companies and restrict rights for workers and patients.
The California Nurses Association formed the National Nurses Organizing Committee in 2004 to expand the state organization’s footprint in representing registered nurses.
The turf battle between CNA/NNOC and the SEIU shows no signs of abating, even after national labor leaders asked the groups to cool down. The conflict could spill over to healthcare organizations where workers are considering unionization.
SEIU confirmed it sent “hundreds” of members to Dearborn to “renounce recent actions by the California Nurses Association to interfere in other unions’ organizing efforts.”
A press release from SEIU said its members “made their voices heard during the Labor Notes Conference in Dearborn, Mich., where CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro was scheduled to speak but cancelled at the last minute, anticipating the scrutiny her actions were expected to receive.”
Accounts from CNA/NNOC reported that more than 500 SEIU members physically forced their way into a room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, where a banquet was being hosted by Labor Notes, a magazine covering union issues. The nurses organization said the banquet culminated a weekend conference on topics including “union democracy, healthcare reform and encouraging the resurgent growth of labor.”
CNA/NNOC said the SEIU members “stormed the hotel and pushed their way through doors to break into the ballroom where the event was being held,” a press release said. “The SEIU staff … physically assaulted a group of union members and activists at the door.
“At least one woman, a retired auto worker and former business manager for Labor Notes, was injured and went to a hospital for treatment of a head injury.”
CNA/NNOC also alleges that SEIU members disrupted several other events and workshops at which CNA/NNOC members were on panels or participants.
"I am disgusted with the tactics of SEIU and their total disrespect for what was going on here – members from multiple unions who were discussing an agenda to fight the increased corporate attacks on working people," said Malinda Markowitz, a nurse and member of CNA/NNOC’s Council of Presidents who was scheduled to speak in DeMoro’s place. "It's clear their only agenda here was to disrupt and try to divide labor and workers. Physical violence is absolutely unacceptable."
CNA/NNOC has been contending growing influence by SEIU and unfair organizing practices.
SEIU representatives said they were opposing CNA/NNOC’s recent actions which “threaten the future of the labor movement for all workers.”
“Open debate serves an important role as we work to strengthen our movement,” said SEIU Executive Vice President Mary Kay Henry. “The Labor Notes conference is the right time and place to discuss our differences. Emergency room hallways and days before contentious union elections are not.”
With 1.9 million members, SEIU claims it is the largest healthcare union, including hospitals, nursing homes and home care; the largest property services union, including building cleaning and security; and the second-largest public employee union.
“There is no justification – none – for the violent attack orchestrated by SEIU at the Labor Notes conference in Detroit,” said an AFL-CIO statement attributed to its president, John Sweeney. “While there may well be multiple sides to any dispute, violence in any form is reprehensible. … I call on the leaders of SEIU to condemn what happened in Detroit.
“It is time for the escalation to stop. Our responsibilities as leaders demand that we rise above our differences and disagreements for the greater good,” Sweeney’s statement concluded. “Last week, the leaders of CNA agreed to meet with SEIU to discuss these issues. Today, I am renewing the call for both parties to come together and resolve the issues that divide them.”