Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Managers at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are bracing for an organizing drive by the Service Employees International Union. SEIU has contacted a number of Beth Israel employees recently with a survey to measure their job satisfaction and how they feel about labor unions and has also made inquiries of government agencies about various aspects of the medical center's finances. SEIU has previously expressed interest in organizing employees at Boston's teaching hospitals, most …

The powerful California Nurses Association is reveling in the defeat it helped hand Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in last week's special election. Now, it appears that the nurses have won the fight which initially caused relations between the governor and nurses groups to deteriorate in the first place. On Thursday, Schwarzenegger's administration abandoned its effort to legally block new staffing rules which will require hospitals to hire more nurses to meet minimum nurse-to-patient …

A chapter of Service Employees International specializing in hospitals has announced plans to organize workers in the Boston area. The New York-based labor organization, which already represents 250,000 healthcare workers at 76 hospitals on the east coast, is not revealing much about its plans. The Boston Globe, however, reports that "likely targets" are Mass General, Beth Israel Deaconess, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Tufts New England Medical Center and Children's Hospital Boston. Story

The much-publicized split in organized labor is beginning to be felt in the healthcare industry. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) left the AFL-CIO three weeks ago after relations between the two reached an all-time low. SEIU president Andy Stern says labor unions have become "complacent" and "not radical enough." That kind of talk, of course, makes healthcare executives just a little nervous. Labor disputes remain a fact of life for American hospitals, even in an age …

Sutter Health faces a potentially serious problem. Service Employees International Union, the union representing thousands of hospital employees at Sutter facilities in Northern California, voted yesterday to authorize a strike. A walkout could come as early as June. The local SEIU chapter wants management to accept a more favorable contract for the nurses, therapists and technicians it represents. Labor difficulties have become a fact of life for healthcare providers in California. The …