California labor board files complaint against SEIU in Fresno election for voter intimidation

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Judge rules against SEIU in California fight
By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post
July 21, 2011

A judge ruled this week that the Service Employees International Union improperly coerced workers caught in the middle of SEIU’s high-stakes turf battle with a breakaway union in California, potentially invalidating a 2010 election involving 43,500 employees.

SEIU, the nation’s most politically influential union, has been engaged in a costly fight with the former leaders of a 150,000-worker California chapter that formed a breakaway union in 2009. The split followed clashes with then-SEIU President Andy Stern over his emphasis on growing membership even if it meant giving concessions to employers.

Last fall, SEIU won the biggest standoff, an election to represent 43,500 Kaiser Permanente workers in Northern California.

The vote was a big setback for the breakaway union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, leaving it with fewer than 10,000 members.

But this week, Administrative Law Judge Lana Parke ruled that Kaiser had improperly withheld pay raises from workers in Southern California who had switched to the new union and that SEIU had then improperly threatened the workers voting in the Northern California election that they, too, could have raises denied if they made the switch. It is now up to the National Labor Relations Board to decide whether to call a second election, as the judge recommends.

Leaders of the breakaway union noted that the ruling came at the same time as SEIU and other unions are arguing in favor of new rules proposed by the labor relations board to reduce employer coercion against workers before union elections.

“SEIU has been promoting itself an as advocate for labor law reform and workers, and against coercion and intimidation, but no institution has done more to coerce and thwart workers about which union they want to join,” said John Borsos, vice president of the breakaway union...



California labor board files complaint against SEIU in Fresno election for voter intimidation
NUHW.org
AUGUST 22, 2012

The California Public Employment Relations Board has filed an official complaint against SEIU-UHW West for its conduct in the 2009 Fresno homecare election.

Citing SEIU’s “physical and verbal threats,” “menacing and abusive behavior,” “unlawful destruction and removal” of property and a campaign of lies intended to mislead 10,000 Fresno homecare workers into voting to stay in SEIU, the board has affirmed the serious charges brought by homecare workers against SEIU.

NUHW President Sal Rosselli spoke out in support of the board’s decision,

“Today’s complaint validates entirely what Fresno homecare workers have said about what they experienced from SEIU. Threats, destruction of property, mail tampering, abusive behavior and violations of workers’ rights, all waged in a deliberate campaign of intimidation by SEIU following the direct instructions of Dave Regan, an ethically bankrupt leader who sits atop SEIU-UHW and serves on the SEIU International Executive Board to this day.”

Class action suit against Kaiser Permanente regarding overtime pay

Courthouse News
SAN BERNARDINO
Southern California Permanente Medical Group stiffs appointment center supervisors for overtime, a class action claims in Superior Court. Suit filed July 30, 2012.

Kaiser Foundation Hospital Overtime Pay Class Action Lawsuit

Kaiser Foundation Hospital Overtime Pay Class Action Lawsuit Complaint Filed On Behalf of Kaiser Site Support Specialists
JUNE 11, 2012

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Inc., a subsidiary of Kaiser Permanente (“Kaiser Hospital” or “Defendant”) in the Superior Court for the State of California , County of Sacramento (captioned Jozette Lemmons v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Inc., Class Action Case No. 34-2012-00125488) alleging, among other things, a failure to pay overtime wages in purported violation of Cal. Labor Code section 510, 1194 and 1198, failure to provide accurate itemized wage statements in purported violation of California Labor code section 226 and alleged unfair competition in purported violation of California Business and Professions code section 17200, according to the Kaiser Foundation Hospital Site Support Specialist Overtime Pay class action lawsuit complaint.

The Kaiser Foundation Hospital Site Support Specialist Overtime Pay class action lawsuit complaint is reportedly brought as a class action on behalf of the following proposed class (“Class”):

All individuals who are or previously were employed by Defendant Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Inc., as Site Support Specialists in California classified as Non-Exempt and who worked on-call hours (“CALIFORNIA CLASS”) at any time during the period beginning on October 6, 2008 and ending on the date as determined by the Court (“CALIFORNIA CLASS PERIOD”).

The Kaiser Foundation Hospital Site Support Specialist Overtime Pay class action lawsuit complaint reportedly seeks, among other things, compensatory damages, injunctive relief, restitution, and pre-judgment and post-judgment interest.