Officials To Count Votes in Battle Between Health Worker Unions in Calif.
Tomorrow, federal labor officials are scheduled to count ballots to determine which union will represent 2,300 Kaiser Permanente health care workers in Southern California, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The election pitted the national Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West against its upstart rival, the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
Background
Last year, SEIU took over the local affiliate of United Healthcare Workers-West and removed Sal Rosselli as its president. After the takeover, Rosselli and other former UHW leaders helped form NUHW as a rival union.
Since the formation of the new group, NUHW and SEIU have sparred frequently about which union will represent different groups of health care workers throughout California.
Protracted Struggle
This month's election will hold a lot of weight as NUHW works to encourage 47,000 additional Kaiser workers to join its ranks.
Meanwhile, SEIU has asked the National Labor Relations Board to hold union elections among more than 4,000 workers at 29 California hospitals and nursing homes. NUHW responded by calling on NLRB to schedule elections at all 80 California facilities that are considering a change in union representation (McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 1/24).
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