Top-Down Sweetheart Deals Like These Are One More Reason The SEIU Has Such A Bad Reputation

SEIU Union Redefined

If some theorize that the Service Employees International Union is willing to put workers into the SEIU against their wishes, it is stories like this that lends credence to that theory:
via Stern Burger with Fries:

The NLRB has found SEIU-UHW officials guilty of rigging an illegal unionization scheme with HCA, the nation’s largest hospital corporation, which forced 200 Southern California hospital workers to join SEIU earlier this year.
[snip] After HCA purchased Thousands Oaks Surgical Hospital, SEIU-UHW cut a deal with HCA executives that forced the hospital’s 200 Registered Nurses and other staff to join SEIU without a vote and forced them to immediately begin paying dues to SEIU.
In May, the hospital’s workers filed charges with the NLRB alleging that HCA executives and Dave Regan colluded to force the 200 workers into SEIU.
After an investigation, the NLRB overturned the unionization scheme and forced SEIU-UHW to post the following notice informing workers of their right to a democratic vote that allows them to elect the union of their choice.

This isn’t the first time–nor will it be the last (see below)–that the SEIU has negotiated so-called sweetheart deals to bring new members into the union.
In one famous California case, workers’ (and patient) rights were tossed to the curb, as SEIU bosses negotiated a deal to get thousands of new members through nursing homes:

On the SEIU’s side of the 2003 bargain, the union agreed to use its clout with Democratic legislators in Sacramento to accomplish three goals of interest to nursing home owners:
The SEIU pledged to use its lobbying muscle to pass a 2004 bill increasing MediCal subsidies to nursing homes by more than $2 billion over four years, according to patient advocates. The bill passed, creating a windfall for nursing home owners.
The union also agreed to attempt to pass tort reform legislation that would have limited patients’ right to sue in the event they were neglected, raped, abused, or killed. (The union’s tort reform lobbying efforts were put on hold, however, after a 2004 SF Weekly story led union members and advocacy groups to complain.)
The SEIU also pledged in the 2003 pact to staunch any efforts by patient advocates to push for legislation or regulations requiring nursing homes to provide enough staff to keep patients safe and healthy, unless the nursing home companies agree to such reforms in advance. The SEIU will “oppose any long-term-care-specific staffing and reimbursement legislation or regulation that fails to meet mutually agreed objectives,” the agreement states.
[snip] According to the template contract, employers have the “exclusive right to manage the business.”
This means the owners set pay rates, pay increases, and incentive plans. They hire, lay off, demote, discipline, and determine benefits for workers without union input. The employers may outsource work performed by union members, and speed up, reassign, or eliminate jobs at will. The employer may eliminate vacations, or any other time off, as the employer sees fit.
The agreement also guarantees that workers’ wages will not put an employer at an “economic disadvantage,” either through employee pay, benefits, or through staff-per-patient ratios.

While the aforementioned sweetheart deal that was negotiated in California happened a decade ago, the SEIU is currently neck-deep in the same antics again.

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