Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Senior care giant Sunrise Senior Living has become the target of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into possible insider stock sales, stock-option grant issues and accounting problems. As of the end of the first quarter of 2007, Sunrise operated 444 senior living communities in the U.S., Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom, as well as having 42 others under construction. The SEC inquiry was prompted in part by a letter from the SEIU Master Trust, the national pension …

Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), whose career has been marked by his willingness to regulate healthcare, is hoping to make yet another mark. This time, Stark has filed a new bill which would set limits on the use of forced overtime by nurses. The bill, the Safe Nursing and Patient Care Act, is endorsed by the American Nurses Association, as well as labor groups like the SEIU and AFL-CIO. Under the terms of the bill, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH), facilities could only …

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is considering some aggressive steps to push all citizens into health insurance plans. Under this proposal--one of several being considered by the administration--the state would track down people who refuse to buy health insurance, force-enrolled in a plan and fined until they pay the premiums. Schwarzenegger has also proposed attaching the wages of people who don't buy into a health plan, or boosting their state income tax debt. To find the …

Despite facing vocal opposition, Sutter Health has gotten approval from the California Health Facilities Financing Authority (CHFFA) to proceed with its proposed $958 million bond issue. Sutter had hoped to proceed in late 2006, but the CHFFA postponed the decision, in part, perhaps, due to complaints by the Service Employees International United-United Healthcare West, which had …

The Service Employees International Union has made dramatic changes lately, taking no less of a step than formally agreeing to work with former nemesis Wal-Mart on health reform. Now, the union has decided to take another significant step--it's establishing a separate new union focused entirely on healthcare organizing. Article

Quickly drawing additional support from other large business, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott and Service Employees International Union head Andrew Stern agreed to bury the hatchet and work together to improve access to "quality, affordable" healthcare for everyone in the U.S. The move was quite a surprise for most observers, who have tracked the SEIU's aggressive fight to change Wal-Mart labor policies. But Stern, who has been a vociferous critic of Wal-Mart's labor and benefit packages, has said …

Long the bane of healthcare administrators, the battlin' Service Employees International Union has announced plans to take things to the next level by forming an SEIU Healthcare division. The new union, which is intended to expand organizing efforts, will represent 30 SEIU locals. The SEIU has already been quite vocal in nursing matters, in particular, supporting nurses in efforts to expand nurse to patient ratios for what it says is needed safety upgrades. It has 84,000 registered nurses …

New York City hospitals and the SEIU United Healthcare Workers East have reached an agreement on a new contract designed to save the SEIU's troubled healthcare benefits fund, despite the fact that the current contract doesn't expire for another 15 months. The fund is facing a $700 million deficit over the next five years due to rising healthcare costs. The contract covers to 65,000 employees at 61 hospitals and 20 nursing homes. As part of the agreement, the hospitals will delay a …

Two years after the odd couple of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich teamed up to tout electronic health records, more unusual groupings are forming in Washington. The Business Roundtable, representing major corporations, is getting together with organized labor--namely the Service Employees International Union--to launch "Divided We Fail," a campaign to push for broad-based-and unspecified-healthcare reform.

Tomorrow, America's …

It's well-known that the healthcare provided in some prison systems--such as California's--is minimal at best. To draw attention to the issue, healthcare workers with the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare West have been planning strikes at prison healthcare facilities, arguing that understaffing at these facilities is endangering patient health. However, the SEIU has reached a breakthrough in its talks with Prison Health Services, which may lead to calling off the strikes. Release