Reports from UHW members and others in our movement.

Click "Read More" for all reports from union activists and supporters of union democracy.

United Healthcare Workers Holding Our Ground.
By Amy Thigpen, Medical Social Worker and UHW Member.

"Last night I slept on the kind of carpet you don't really want to examine too closely. It's splotched with decades of coffee stains and salsa and too many conversations still seem to hang in the stale air, but there I was, curled up on my air mattresses in the union hall in downtown Oakland, the home of United Healthcare Workers West, my union. On my right my sister the Medical Assistant slept peacefully, on my left my sister the Call Center Representative, across my sister the Ultrasound Technician, and my sister the Optical Technician. All of them healthcare workers, member leaders and officers in our union. I realized that I loved this stale, stained room, with carpets held together by duct tape, I love the room because it holds the waking dreams of my sister and brothers in UHW-W. The place may be held together by duct tape but we as a union are held together by something stronger."

Read the full post (and see more pictures) at www.mydd.com.


In the Streets - A report on UHW members' Jan 24 meetings.
By Ellen Dillinger, UHW member.

"UHW members from the Bay Area and elsewhere in Northern California met at the ILWU hall in Oakland to assess SEIU's plans for UHW. The International Longshore & Warehouse Union has a long history of fighting for union members' rights, and their hall was a fitting place to contemplate UHW's future."

Read the full report and see many more pictures at www.dillingertoons.net


SEIU Launches Takeover of United Healthcare Workers-West.
By Mark Brenner at Labor Notes

"Financial assets for the 150,000-member local were immediately seized, the executive board was dissolved, and full-time officers were removed from payroll. Reports circulated among workplace leaders that SEIU also dismissed UHW stewards, and that employers are holding captive-audience meetings to introduce new SEIU-appointed staff representatives."

Read the full article at Labor Notes



Defending their union against the SEIU.
By Jessie Muldoon, of the Oakland Education Association at Socialist Worker.

"CHANTING "WHEN in doubt, kick 'em out," hundreds of members of United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW) rallied at their union's offices in Oakland, Calif., January 27, as the national leadership of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) threatened to take over the 150,000-member affiliate.

Earlier in the day, SEIU President Andy Stern announced that the UHW was being placed in trusteeship. Last night's protest was called on short notice after a UHW mobilizing meeting of hundreds of workers. Members of other SEIU locals--and of other unions representing nurses, dockworkers, painters, carpenters and teachers--attended and voiced their support."

Read the full post at Socialist Worker