Thanks for the diary.  

I was waiting for someone from 1199 to weigh in on this, because it's a local that I'm familiar with.

But they do faithfully repeat SEIU's on-going talking point of denying what happened in Dearborn.  Two busses of burly male SEIU staffers attacked a peaceful gathering of trade unionists, physically and with violence, injuring multiple people and sending one to the hospital.  There are now 20 different first-person accounts collected here, by everyone from independent journalists and activists to dissident SEIU members.  Denying these facts is Orwellian.

It's important for a number of reasons that we not let this incident be covered up.  Most of all, it highlights why RNs, who see themselves as professionals with a sacred calling, generally don't want representation by SEIU.  It should be noted that the only people not surprised at SEIU's  behavior in Dearborn were the nurses, who had made plans to flee out the back if anything happened.  

It also raises important questions about Andy Stern's SEIU.  What kind of leader in this day and age would think of directing such an attack?  The questions remain for Andy Stern: will you apologize for the attack, pay the bills of the hospitalized woman, and renounce the use of violence?

And finally, it's important context to what is happening to nurse leaders in California.  We are pulling together a diary of the different incidents, but rest assured that RNs do not appreciate multiple visits to their workplace, home, as they're driving, and with family by out-of-state SEIU staffers, mostly male.  There has been no violence in California, but women have been harrassed--obviously not by the people they feature in the video, but by the people filming, driving, and completely unconnected to the video.

We will have more information on SEIU's plan against both CNA and UHW in California, but SEIU is attempting to raid/bust CNA in a San Diego election (Scripps Encinitas) and a Fresno election (St. Agnes) as we speak.

Your pretense to defend AFSCME, our sisters and brothers in the AFL-CIO, is laughable.

Nice to see 1199 chime in. Now let's examine how hypocritical their leadership is in the form of Dennis Rivera.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/02/ 29/2008-02-29_new_york_labor_leader_denn is_rivera_in_s.html

"Eight days ago, the Puerto Rico Federation of Teachers, which represents 40,000 teachers, paralyzed island public schools with a strike.

The teachers, who earn top wages of $26,000 a year, had worked for 30 months without a contract. Union leaders were furious that Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila imposed new working conditions last year, decertified the union in January and suspended its dues checkoff.

The governor's draconian actions came after the union's membership voted in November to authorize a strike. Since 1998, Puerto Rico's government workers have not been allowed to strike.

While the clash between the teachers' militant leaders and the government was grabbing the headlines, Rivera was maneuvering to snatch control of the teachers for his Service Employees International Union.

Top labor leaders here and in Puerto Rico say Acevedo Vila gave Rivera, a close friend and a vice president of the 1.6-million member SEIU, a green light last year to oust the teachers federation and replace it with a newly formed labor group, the Union of Puerto Rican Teachers."

It's funny to see folks like Norma Amsterdam and other 1199 folks condemning another union for the same thing that 1199 does.

While we're at it, why did SEIU endorse a union-busting attorney Republican who was running for a seat in the recent NY State Senate special election upstate? Why did SEIU endorse and provide a lot of volunteer and financial support for a crooked mayor in Mount Vernon who brought nothing but bankruptcy and federal investigations to my hometown? I'm glad to report that we defeated SEIU's crooked candidate in the primary and went on to kick his ass again in the general when he went and ran under the independence party banner.

I guess you all believe the video of McCain in the Bagdad market saying how safe it is.

Or were you expecting the wide shot then and the rest of the story?

2 middle-aged women knocking primly on a door in a southern California neighborhood, then leaving when nobody answers.

When was the last time someone from your profession came to your house with a video camera, stood on your lawn, peered into your window, then started yelling at you when they saw you through the window.

If people in your profession want to talk to you, they email or write or phone to make an appointment.

That never happened here in California. But we do have statements from CNA nurse leaders who were harassed by SEIU individuals who were not professional at all in their demeanor.

And now you want me to believe that it was all on the up and up? Sorry. That dog don't hunt.

Then there's the SEIU fairy-tale about what happened in Detroit. Just a peaceable protest against a union buster.

ONE OF YOUR MEMBERS DIED BECAUSE OF THE STRESSFULNESS OF THE ACTIVITY.

Have you no sense of decency? And have you no sense at all? You put vulnerable children and frail members into a situation that you intended to be rough (else why the masked faces of you lead staff?)

SEIU could do so much good if you'd only act like a UNION instead of thugs and sellout agents of corporate America

I think that the average reader of this site can be trusted to actually go to the many listed reports by Bill Ornasch, Labor Notes, Moberg, Paff and others.
All of these are folks with:

1. Long histories in the labor movement and in the fight for democratic unions.
   
2. Good reputations earned over a long time.
   
3. No connection to CNA/NNOC

Let the reader judge for themselves who is credible.
Don't believe the partisans on either side?  Those are unbiased sources.  While we're at it, for another look that steps back and looks at the bigger picture, try this one from two SEIU member activists, (not connected with CNA/NNOC either):

http://www.socialistworker.org/2008-1/67 0/670_07_SEIU.shtml

It steps back a bit from the heat of the two events and looks at root causes.

A one-act play.

The plot, in brief:

The judge, from the California Superior Court, carefully reviews legal evidence of CNA's case for a Temporary Restraining Order. She is unable to find sufficient factual evidence to support the CNA's use of this serious legal injunction, so she vacates the order: http://shameoncna.com/2008/04/court-thro ws-out-restraining-order.html.

The blogger says "HEY! I SAID it's true SO IT'S TRUE! Who are you going to believe, judge? Me or that crazy masked purple mob of burly men that busted into our conference with the intent to harm, disrespect, and do violence to everyone present?!"

The camera jumps in and shows the judge, the blogger, and the World Wide Web the unedited video footage it happens to have from the conference in question: http://shameoncna.com/2008/04/seiu-rn-di an-palmer-calls-on-afl-cio.html.

How does the play end? Who is to be trusted?? What counts as 'evidence'?!

OK, admittedly I'm getting a little punchy here. It's been a long day. The point I'm driving at is this: the evidence is out there, in video form. It has been reviewed by the CA Superior Court. With all the tempers raging and accusations flying in all directions, we need to be able to look to authorities other than the word-of-mouth of people--on all sides--who come to the discussion with a predetermined side and agenda. I submit that federal courts and unedited video are two such sources.

~Nadia, SEIU staffer

First, I don't appreciate someone implying that I'm "lying" about being both an SEIU, now 1021 public sector union, under collective bargaining with the city of SF and a member of the Joint Nursing Practice of the California Nursing Association/NNOC for the last several years.

I have been an SEIU member since 5/5/97 when we had a small, progressive local called SEIU 790, that including all DPH (Dept. of Public Health Workers) and surrounding DPH clinics.  I was the Co-Chair of the NP Practice group (2003-2005) for SFGH and our clinics and fought hard to help save nursing jobs at our clinics, NP positions at Tom Wadell and cuts to our MIRF (Mental Health Clinic) when our budget was bad.  Our PHN's led that fight and we won keeping our nurses in the clinics, our PHN's in the field and our MIRV open.

But that has changed with the smashing together of 10 locals in to one giant sector union known as 1021.  I went to the hastily called re-organization meeting when we were told either a huge Public sector union or a RN division that would have been out-numbered 20 to one and our practice diluted.  One choice to remain a smaller, more localized 790 wasn't an option.  The union has changed and it is feeling more top down and insular since the re-organization.  

Our meetings with our representative are down to 15 minutes every 6 months and we have no idea what is going on in the city an county.  We lost 15 PHN Chronic care nurses who have been reassigned and part of Clarendon Hall has been slated to close as of May 1st leaving 100's of positions to be reassigned.  Our nursing home patients are being put in other counties.  In addition, our workman's comp clinic has been closed and out-sourced.  We are losing 8 hours of OR time at SFGH.  No one is talking about the cuts and more supposedly to come.

So, before you assume things about people, especially, quoting the great Lucretia Mott,  suggest you delve a little deeper than your superficial comments about people whom you do not know.  I would also advise you that even my union local, 1021, is part of a move to reform SEIU known as SMART.  I think you need to stop reading just the information from one source and start thinking.  I wish my brothers and sisters in SMART and Sal Rosselli all the luck in the up-coming membership meeting in June.  

I have also been a member, since my student nurse days, of CNA.  I will continue to be member because they are a voice for nurses and have a vision for health care that speaks to my condition as a registered nurse and a nurse practitioner in public health.
Sincerely,

Nancy Lewis. RN FNP

s                            

1199's hypocrisy would be laughable if not tragic. The ranting about Ohio does not cover up what everyone knows to be the truth. SEIU has raided more unions than any other union in history. 1199 wouldn't exist in Seattle if not for the raids it conducted on the Washington State Nurses Association.

Same for 1199 Western Pennsylvania, where it raided the Pennsylvania Nurses Association. 1199 New York is currently raiding the New York State Nurses Association in New York as it has in the past. 1199 has inserted itself in numerous union elections to prevent thousands of non union RNs from having the chance to win their union elections--and many of those hospitals remain non union today. 1199 has prided itself on it's underhanded tactics by sending in organizers pretending to be "rank and file nurses" to trash Nurses' Association union elections in state after state where 1199 was not on the ballot--including Ohio.

SEIU and 1199 may try to deny it--but there are too many former staffers who could testify otherwise--if subpoenaed. They cannot deny it because the whole labor movement knows the truth. The truth they will never tell the nurses in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Washington State, Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, Massachusetts and many more---of yes don't forget Florida!

http://www.lvrj.com/business/17842304.ht ml
"The U.S. Department of Labor is looking into allegations that the Service Employees International Union's Local 1107 in Las Vegas used employer money to produce campaign materials for a specific set of candidates in its September election of new officials."

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/apr 17/labor-law-broken-during-seiu-electio n-report-says
"For the past four months, Labor Department officials have been probing last year's election of union officers at SEIU Nevada, which represents 17,500 health care and public sector workers in the state."

http://www.alliedinternationalunion.com/ contact_press_yahoo.htm
"Allied International Union has filed a civil complaint under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which charges Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ and others with racketeering, extortion, fraud and other illegal activities. Unlike a number of recent employer-initiated RICO cases against SEIU, this lawsuit is brought by a labor union to end unlawful SEIU conduct."

Chico David,

The problem is a crisis of honesty. So much of what comes from the CNA is so obviously dishonest.

CNA lied to get a TRO and (literally) silence CHP workers. CNA lied about Dearborn. CNA lied about Ohio over and over.

CNA lies to its members, lies to SEIU members, lies to workers at CHP hospitals who have not had a chance to vote for the union because the CNA came to bust the union with its lies.

CNA lies to blog readers, lies to the California Superior Court, and lies to Labor Notes.

That's what this post is about. So don't send me to read some more of your lies, I've had it up to here.

You may throw around all the insults and epithets you wish, but I would continue to repeat my encouragement to users to do their own research - go to individual links, read what they have to say, evaluate sources, draw your own conclusions.  I have no fear of the conclusions that any reasonable person would draw.
And I would add that the bullying, hectoring tone that organize1199 displays here is a big part of the reason why his union is in such low repute among Registered Nurses across America.  In some things, style does equal substance.

CNA leader Rose Ann Demoro is using union resources to stop 8,000 Ohio workers from joining the union, just because it's not her union. That's what started this argument and it isn't going to end until the CNA agrees to behave itself - and hopital workers are once again able to organize without being attacked by Demoro's rogue union.

Finding a resolution starts with finding the truth. People who have a stake in this argument need to know the truth. Credibility matters - we need to know who is honest.

This diary is about exposing the CNA as a non-credible organization - an organization that lies about real events that are happening to real people.

It doesn't take Matlock to make the case here, but I think it's important, because the dishonesty is getting in the way of dealing with the real problems.

If we want to believe the CNA we'd have to dismiss the veracity of the California Superior court, two unedited videotapes, the majority of eye witnesses (including me, by the way), the Dearborn police, the LA County police, and the hospital workers from Catholic Healthcare Partners whose are trying to organize a union.

So let's just take a moment to recognize the CNA's pround dishonesty. Right here in this diary, they bear false witness against me and my union and the people I care about.

We're not talking about little lies. We're talking about inventing attacks by busloads of hairy men - an attack that didn't happen by men who do not exist. We're talking about false accusations of "harrasment and stalking" by "5 male staffers" - accusations used to silence CHP workers in court, until the SEIU proved the order was obtained dishonestly, and the same judge vacated it.

In their defense - their own credibility shot - they cite people like the Troskyites and the union of Bennie the Bug.

This diary post is about the CNA Versus the Truth.

Who will win, only time will tell. But one thing is for certain. The California Nurses Association and the Truth are in a serious fight... A fight that's hurting people who really do exist in Ohio and around the country.