I’m only about peace and love these days when it comes to the labor movement–there is plenty to write about in the AIG-side of the world that makes you want to cry. So, it was nice to read the email in my box announcing an agreement between SEIU and the California Nurses Association to work together. How do I say this nicely: it wasn’t always so in the past. I’ll leave it at that.
The key pieces of the agreement:
· The two unions will work together to organize non-union hospital workers throughout the country, with CNA/NNOC as the leading voice for RNs, and SEIU as the leading voice for all other hospital workers.
· The unions will launch an intensive national organizing campaign with an initial focus on the nation’s largest hospital systems.
· In addition to organizing, SEIU and CNA/NNOC will coordinate on a broad range of other issues from bargaining with common employers to the campaign to enact the Employee Free Choice Act.
· SEIU and CNA/NNOC publicly endorse measures that allow states to adopt single-payer health care systems.
· Both parties will refrain from "raiding," seeking to displace the existing members of the other’s organization, or from interference in the other’s internal affairs.
· The two unions will create a new joint RN organization in Florida to represent current and future RNs of both unions. In all other states, SEIU will continue to represent their current RN members in collective bargaining.
I always wondered: you have a sea of people to organize so why tussle over the same folks? It’s also a particularly good development that SEIU will work with CNA to push single-payer at the state level (CNA has been a solid single-payer advocate)–though, personally, I think single-payer has to be done federally. Of course, the other interesting aspect of this arrangement is how it effectively outlines coordination between Change To Win (SEIU) and the AFL-CIO (CNA) on organizing workers in the health care industry.
