Workers Deliver Message to Hospital CEO

Workers Deliver Message to Hospital CEO
By Mike Rhodes

Workers from Community Medical Centers in Fresno delivered their CEO a message today. The message, delivered by about 100 healthcare workers and their allies, is that they want a fair election, free of threats and intimidation, so they can decide for themselves if Service Employees International Union - UHW will represent them.

Speaking at the press conference, preceding the delivery of the letter, Letty Mendoza an employee of the hospital spoke about what has been going on since they announced the organizing drive last week. Mendoza said “yesterday I had to go to an anti-union meeting. They said that they didn’t care if we formed a union. He just said he wanted us to have all the facts, but those facts were lies. He offended me because he said only 20 people came to the press conference on the 27th of last month. I told him that 200 people came. . . I kept correcting his lies and then a charge nurse came and made me leave the meeting. That’s not right and it made some of my co-workers mad.” Mendoza said they were delivering a letter to CEO Tim Joslin today that calls for an agreement that will result in free and fair elections.

The workers were supported by several local elected officials, including Fresno City Council woman Cynthia Sterling. Sterling said “I’m here today to support the free and fair election agreement proposal for healthcare workers at Community Medical Centers. This agreement will protect the rights of those workers to decide for themselves if they want to form a union. These workers want to become union to improve the lives of their patients and their families.”

John Donaldson, a former member of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors said he was there to support “a fair election agreement between the two sides so that there is no intimidation. . . so people can learn the facts and vote the way they feel, rather than by being intimidated.”

“The kind of behavior we’ve seen in the last week at Community Medical Centers is making it significantly harder to provide high-quality care to our patients,” said Yvette Chavez, a patient care advocate at Community Regional Medical Center. “We’re already understaffed - we can’t afford to spend hours at a time in meetings that only offer misinformation. That’s why we’re proposing a solution everyone can agree with.”

After the press conference the workers and their allies went into the building where CEO Joslin has his office. Arriving on the fourth floor, with letter in hand, they knocked on Joslin’s door. Several workers told me they heard people in the office, but the door was locked and was not opened. The workers left their proposal for a free and fair election leaned up against the door.

This is what the letter says:

CMC Workers’ Proposal for a Free and Fair Election Agreement

Hospital systems throughout California have chosen to respect workers’ right to organize through Free and Fair Election Agreements. These include Catholic Healthcare West, Kaiser Permanente, Tenet Healthcare, Hospital Corporation of America, Daughters of Charity and Sutter Health. As employees of CMC, we ask CEO Tim Joslin to commit to a Free and Fair Election Agreement based on the following principles:

* No negative campaigning that disparages the employer or the union.
* No mandatory one-on-one or group meetings.
* Equal access to factual information
* No use of outside consultants
* No harassment, intimidation or discrimination against employees because of their support for, or opposition to, the union.
* Quick and effective enforcement of election conduct by a neutral third party.
* Secret-ballot elections conducted and certified by the National Labor Relations Board.

For more information about the CMC organizing drive, see: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/28/18444327.php and http://www.seiu-uhw.org/
###