On April 9, 2008, roughly 30 CNA organizers descended on hospitals in Los Angeles,
Alameda, and San Francisco —where nurses and other hospital employees are represented by SEIU—and began distributing flyers asking nurses to “switch” to the California Nurses Association. Some CNA organizers dressed up as nurses so they could enter areas of the hospitals normally off limits. One CNA organizer at Harbor Hospital in Los Angeles was arrested after slapping an SEIU representative and stomping on the foot of another. The disruptive actions came just days after the CNA sent a brochure disparaging SEIU—with decertification cards attached—to registered nurses throughout the state of California.

This attack on SEIU-represented nurses throughout California is the latest in a long history of raids, interventions, and union-busting campaigns by the California Nurses Association:

• Days before more than 8,000 nurses and other hospital employees in Ohio were to vote on whether to form

a union with SEIU, through a fair process negotiated after a three-year campaign, dozens of CNA organizers waged a vicious “vote no” campaign. The March elections were cancelled.

• CNA filed decertification petitions for 1,000 registered nurses represented by SEIU at three Las Vegas

hospitals owned by Catholic HealthcareWest. Elections are scheduled for earlyMay.

• Although AFSCME has represented the nurses at the Harris County Hospital District in Texas for decades,

now the CNA is trying to sign up those nurses—claiming “the registered nurses should be in their own organization rather than joining a union that represents a variety of health care workers.”

• CNA waged an anti-union campaign at St. Francis hospital in Memphis, TN, where nurses and other

hospital employees have a free and fair chance to form a union with SEIU. Result: No union for nurses or other hospital workers.

• CNA tried to intervene in SEIU organizing drive at Renown hospital in Reno, but failed to get the 10%

required to get put on the ballot.

• CNA filed legal objections to nurses voting for another union. Now 1,800 nurses at St. John's MercyMedical

Center in St. Louis, MO have no union.

• As SEIU nurses were renegotiating a union contract with Dimensions Healthcare System, a 4-hospital system

in Maryland, CNA organizers showed up with leaflets and mailings in an unsuccessful attempt to initiate a decertification of SEIU.

• When SEIU won a fair organizing process for nurses at Michael Reese in Chicago, the CNA intervened and

filed a petition for an election. After dismantling the SEIU campaign, the CNAwithdrew the petition. Result: No union for nurses.

• CNA lured nurses at Stroger (formerly Cook County) Medical Center away from the Illinois Nurses

Association with promises of California-style wages and patient ratios. But nurses struggled for two years until they finally got a contract.

• In an effort to raid the Hawaii Nurses Association, CNA representatives collaborated with a group of nurses

to physically take over the HNA’s offices. A federal judge later ruled the takeover was improper. CNA lost when the HNA voted to staywith the ANA.

• After losing an election at a nearby St. Joseph’s hospital in Phoenix, CNA dispersed its organizers to

Maricopa Medical Center to disrupt SEIU’s organizing campaign. CNA organizers told nurses they were better off with “no union” than with SEIU.

• Days after SEIU won fair organizing rules at Tenet Healthcare hospitals in California, the CNA arrived with

leaflets alleging that it was a “sell out, back room deal,” that Tenet was “hand picking” the union, and that nurses shouldn’t have to belong to a “janitors union.” It set up another union to compete with SEIU for the support staff. Result: Union elections were delayed for a year; CNA got its own agreement with Tenet (just like the one it alleged was a “back room deal”) and successfully stopped most RNs from joining SEIU.

• After SEIU signed up nearly half of the RNs at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, the CNA arrived

with a negative campaign that divided the nurses and shut down the organizing efforts.

• SEIU won a historic fair election agreement with Catholic Healthcare West, the largest hospital chain in

California. But, CNA cut a deal with CHW before SEIU could finalize their agreement with CHW. They then started a negative campaign against SEIU in SEIU’s organizing campaigns. CNA also set up an ancillary union successfully organizing several units of service and tech workers which SEIU planned to organize.