New Haven Independent

Posted by: Cocoa Beans | May 1, 2007 11:42 PM

Give me a break; enough already. Bunch of babies. This is getting boring as the lawyers and union leaders try to justify their existence, and help their pockets get fatter so they can pay for $4 gas and double UI bills.

Get real, lose your egos (both sides), and move on. I'm afraid our mayor seems too invested in this minority populous issue (as far as New Haven goes) instead of fighting some of the more pressing issues. Hate to see the Govenor waste time dealing with this, too.

Posted by: Jacki Fitzpatrick | May 2, 2007 9:56 AM

I work at YNHH and live in New Haven. We were all set to have the election, but the union saw all the Vote No buttons and chickened out. All this mess is because the union realizes we, the workers, don't want them.

Posted by: Carlos | May 2, 2007 11:25 AM

I read the full text of the Judge's ruling in the New Haven Register in December. The Judge found that Yale-New Haven:

lied to workers about union dues; lied to workers about union members losing their jobs at a local nursing home; threatened workers would lose promotions if the union won; violated her order not to campaign against the union on work time; and illegally polled workers about their support for the union.

The Judge also said Yale-New Haven trained 200 supervisors to run their vicious, coercive, negative, and illegal campaign. This is all public record at this point. Now the Labor Board is agreeing with the Judge that Yale broke Federal law during the campaign.

Why did Yale-New Haven sign a fair-election agreement it had no intention of keeping? What single thing has Yale done to repair the violations of workers rights? Where is the accountability for Yale CEO Marna Borgstrom and her administration?

Posted by: delegate | May 2, 2007 1:56 PM

Jacki's got it wrong. The election was cancelled because the independent arbitrator found that the hospital violated their agreement for a fair union election and the law. It was the hospital management that stopped a fair election not the union.

Posted by: Kris | May 2, 2007 7:39 PM

Do any of you people work at YNHH.?The bottom line is the workers at YNHH have the right to vote.When you vote by secret ballot nobody will know if you vote yes or no.Who the hell do all these people think they are saying yale should just let the union walk right in?This whole thing effects me because I am 1 of the 1800 people.I dont want a union and I should not be forced to join one.I took the job yale OFFERED me(REMEMBER I WENT TO THEM FOR A JOB,THEY DIDNT COME HUNT ME DOWN AND FORCE ME TO WORK THERE) because they had no union so i think if there are employees that want the union they should go work at St. Raphaels....oh yea i forgot they dont pay as well as non-union yale.And to all you pro union hospital employees...yale isnt prison so you are free to leave whenever you would like.There are plenty of people that would love to take your job.

Posted by: Steve Koch, PRO UNION | May 2, 2007 10:58 PM

As an avid Independent reader and City resident, I have followed this thread with much interest. I am the Southern Connecticut Field Representative for a Labor Union (SEIU, Local 511) that has a Maintenance & Service Collective Bargaining Agreement with the State. We represent thousands of State Custodians, Cafeteria Employees, DOT Workers, Technical High School Maintainers, Department of Mental Health and Addiction Employees, DCF Workers, State University Employees (UConn, SCSU, WCSU etc.) In other words, most 'blue-collar' workers within the State of Connecticut.

New members ask me on a daily basis what a Union does for them. Well, there are over 130 pages of a bound contract that is painstakingly negotiated with the State every three years. And every member votes on what gets negotiated! Everything from job security (order of layoff & Reemployment), safety, meals, snow/ice assignments, rest periods, discipline, grievance procedures, equalization of overtime, training, uniform and shoe allowances, personnel records, payroll "glitches" that all too often short the employee, temporary services in a higher class, seniority, nepotism, transfers, shift and salary differentials, retirement, contracting out...you get the picture. And why are we so strong? Because we are a COLLECTIVE that is willing to stand up to management. Racism, sexism, ageism, favoritism...I run across it every day.

Without a union, there would be no protection...no collective voice for better working conditions. At the risk of sounding too self-righteous, this is trench warfare; it is the consumate struggle between those who wish to have a voice in their daily labor versus those who wish to quash it through intimidation, arrogance, and greed. Management is trying to squeeze the employee to meet a budget, while a collective bargaining unit has the wherewithal to say "Hey, maybe we're being stretched too thin? Maybe I didn't get that promotion because of inter-office political favoritism. And who the hell knows when my next raise will be...and for how much!? Why is that written warning in my file! How do I grieve it?"

A recent poster on a different thread mentioned education (or the lack therof), and the fact that "nobody wants to grow up and be a janitor." So how does one dignify that statement with a response? Perhaps that ship of compassion sailed a long time ago.

I can't speak intelligently about 1199, but I know that their efforts are virtuous in light of the hospital betrayal. They are a sister SEIU organization, and I back their efforts for a collective bargaining agreement unconditionally. Many of you have been held captive for the anti-union closed door meetings (a bill is about to pass our state legislature on this issue) and may have even bought into the maternal nature of Marna Borgstrom. It is a ruse. Don't be lead by Hospital propoganda and paid anti-union consultants! Think critically!

Remember this:

Here are five good reasons to join your co-workers in uniting to form a union:

# 1 - Working together, union members have the strength to win better wages, affordable health care, a secure retirement, and safer workplaces.

# 2 - The "union advantage" is substantial. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, union members are much more likely to have health benefits and pensions.

# 3 - For people of color and women workers, the union impact is even greater. Women workers who are union members earn nearly $9,000 a year more than their non-union counterparts. For African-American workers, the union differential is also about $9,000, and for Latino workers the yearly advantage is more than $11,000.

# 4 - In addition to helping workers win better wages and benefits, unions help all workers by giving working families a stronger voice in our communities, in the political arena, and in the global economy.

# 5 - By joining together, we can build the strength to hold elected officials accountable, stop the "race to the bottom" by employers who cut wages and benefits in favor of bigger profits, and win improvements such as affordable, quality health care for all.

Posted by: Walt | May 3, 2007 8:23 AM

If I were a Hospital employee I would probably lean toward a union, but certainly not toward SEIU.

This is the Union which has spent several hundred thousand $$$ (close to a million $$$ by now) for advertising using nasal New York thespians damning the Hospital and trying to take away the employees' right to vote.

They seem to realize the employees do not like SEIU and are likely to vote against that group if given the opportunity.

It appears SEIU's only opportunity to regain the $$$ it has spent is for it to be declared the winner by the NLRB, without allowing the employees to vote.

SEIU can then force the employees to pay and turn its current big losses into a gold mine through high dues.

Police the election so that neither side breaks the law. Give the employees a chance for an honest vote.

Posted by: Jacki | May 3, 2007 10:05 AM

Delegate says I have it wrong about the election being cancelled because 1199 saw our Vote No buttons. Tell me, Delegate, do you work at YNHH as I do? The election was cancelled the day before the vote. If 1199 saw things going wrong as you say, why was the vote cancelled so late? It was the fact that 1199 realized they were going to LOSE. We DON'T want them here. Plain and simple. I have not met one single YNHH employee who wants the union here.

Posted by: CapColeman | May 3, 2007 12:16 PM

What hypocrisy! SEIU acknowledges it would lose a secret ballot vote, yet insists it be declared the representative of YNHH employees and allowed to start collecting dues from employees' paychecks. And these people are supposed to stand for "workers' rights"?? SEIU spent a fortune (using other members' hard-earned dues money) in a failed bid to gain majority support of YNHH workers. It wants its millions back and is desperate to have YNHH workers repay SEIU's debt by dues deductions and dues increases for years to come. It wants to impose itself on workers who rejected them and has the nerve to suggest workers are too stupid to make the decision. Card check? What a joke - everyone knows many workers sign those cards just to get the union organizers and their fellow workers agitating for a union off their backs and to stop them from ringing the door bell to their homes. YNHH managers are limited in what they can say but union organizers claim the right to come into workers' homes and pitch their sale. When they busted in on a YNHH managers' meeting and acted like thugs, making those present fear for their safety, did anyone notice that the thugs were not largely YNHH employees but socialist party agitators from out-of-state? If they are true to their credo, they will respect workers, not treat them like benighted fools whose lives need to be managed by the intelligentsia.

Posted by: elmcityguy | May 3, 2007 3:13 PM

re: CAPCOLEMAN

The people who busted in on the managers meeting were from local's 34 & 35. I obviously can't verify every single person that was there, but people were bussed in from around the University, not from out of state. If the managers felt fear, thats their problem, no one was going to attack anyone. The University's Unions don't like union busting going on in their buildings. I don't agree with the tactic, but I see where it was coming from.

I'm not a big fan of the card count neutrality, but I'm not sure what other options there are. YNHH seems to have blatantly violeted both the community agreement and the law numerous times, and I really don't think a fair election would be possible. However, card count neutrality being used now would be changing the rules in the middle of the game, which also isn't fair. I don't feel like two wrongs make a right. Personally, I'd like to see a NEW agreement, and have things start all over again, with a clause that says if the Hospital again breaks the agreement, the card count would be the deciding factor. Obviously, the Union would have to have some penalties if THEY broke the agreement as well

Posted by: nhrr | May 4, 2007 12:20 AM

A couple of tidbits from a YNHH employee:
1) The latest odds are that the union would lose the vote by somewhere between a 6-1 and 8-1 margin.
2) The 1199 represented food service workers still don't have a new contract. It expired 12/31, and their wonderful union has been so busy with other things that nearly 6 months have passed. The workers lost 2 years of PIP bonuses because of a lack of contract in the past, and the fact that THEIR union didn't negotiate for them. It is so good to know their union has THEIR best interests in mind. This is reality in the trenches...a bunch of decent and hardworking food service workers who find themselves constantly being used as pawns by SEIU (and 34/35) while they go after bigger fish.

Posted by: ann | May 4, 2007 10:01 AM

Steve Koch: For your #3 reason, just for the record as follows:

1. I am a woman and I work for YNHH.

2. I earn almost 2x more than some of SEIU 1199's organized kitchen workers at YNHH (and I am not management, nor am I a professional, nor am I union). Actully, college kids are working for the summer at YNHH and making more than some of the organized kitchen workers do.

3. I take strong offence to you preying on woman and people of color as your union often does.

Let's all face it. SEIU is a business. Organizers are nothing more than sales people. They have a product to sell just like Walmart does. The only difference is Walmart has happy face "Union Free" greeters, and the SEIU 1199 has thugs. They will stop at nothing to sell their defective product. It just doesn't work. Look at the foundation they were built on. "You can put perfume on a pig, but it's still a pig".

And people wonder why businesses out source their work to other countries? Just look for the UNION LABEL.

Posted by: Steve Koch, PRO UNION | May 4, 2007 9:14 PM

Ann, #3 is the national average. And if there is a collective bargaining agent for your kitchen I am absolutely confused. Is it possible that your job title does not fall under the auspices of that particular agreement? I suppose anything is possible, including the anti-union pr machine that clearly frequents the Independent.

Those "Happy Face Wal-Mart Greeters" that you mention probably don't show their teeth- because if they did- well, let's just say that they lack dental coverage. Don't you know that Wal-Mart uses YOUR tax dollars to cover the lion's share of health insurance (medicaid) for their employees? They are an insidious example of corporate irresponsibility and greed.

Ann, I advocate for my members every single day and take issue with your use of the word "thug". While some of my grievance hearings are contentious, most are quite civil and involve a good deal of conflict resolution, mediation, and problem solving. It is the only way to get anything done in this business.

Please reconsider shopping at Wal-Mart. Thanks.

Posted by: ann | May 6, 2007 10:02 PM

Mr. Koch: Our kitchen help is SEIU 1199 and without a contract for months now (I feel sorry for them). I earn more money than them because I get great yearly reviews/raises. It is not an across the board raise like a contract would offer.

I refuse to refer to myself as a national average. Other women and people of color should do the same. Unions thrive on making people think that they are getting treated unfairly because of sex or color. I am sick of unions making that their sales pitch. Thugs, yes they are. Myself and my family have witnessed their wrath. They were forceful and belligerent. Calling my relatives to get me to come on "their side". According to SEIU, I am in the barganing unit. A few years back I even signed a card because they told me it was to obtain info on the SEIU.

As far as Walmart goes, I asked several of their workers how it was to work there. I had my daughter with me. I asked how their benefits were and how they were treated. Every single one of them said they had no gripes. I asked if they were union and if they wanted one. Each employee different ages, color, and sex. All said NO. We obtained an application for my daughter. I'd rather have Walmart use my tax $$ than the SEIU steal it from me in the form of DUES.

After we left Walmart, I told my daughter to look online and apply to YNHH first because they pay almost double to start. The hospital is a great place to work.

Have a great day :) (happy face).