Tom Gilroy, Daily Labor Report, July 15, 2008

Los Angeles - A two-day hearing being conducted by the Service Employees International Union aimed at deciding whether to put all California long-term health care workers into one union local is a "kangeroo court" whose outcome ultimately will not matter, the president of one of the affected unions told a crowd of union members July 14.

Speaking at a rally of thousands of his members outside the hotel where the hearing was under way, Sal Rosselli, president of United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW), which fears it could lose some 65,000 of its 150,000 members in any consolidation, said it was UHW, and not the international, that had won long-sought wage and benefit increases from California nursing home owners.

Shortly before he spoke, Rosselli told BNA the hearing didn't matter. "They decided a year and a half ago" to split UHW, he charged. He repeated the accusation in his remarks to the crowd, which UHW estimated at 5,000. He told his members the hearing was a "kangeroo court, a political opportunity" at which leaders of the international union were telling lies about UHW's accomplishments.

"What happens in the hearing doesn't matter," he said. "What matters is what we do about it," he added, calling on those present to each identify 10 co-workers who needed to be "brought up to speed" on the importance of the fight.

To date, none of the threatened SEIU takeovers of UHW negotiations or activities has taken place, "and with your help, none of them will," Rosselli said.

SEIU Defends Hearing Process

However, Steve Trossman, director of communications for SEIU, said the hearing process is one that the international has used to deal with controversial issues for a long time. He added that both Rosselli and UHW have used and accepted the process for other matters in the past.

The hearing is aimed at deciding whether to put all of California's long-term health care workers into one local. Currently, SEIU Local 6434 represents some 160,000 long-term care workers, UHW about 65,000, and SEIU Local 521 about 20,000, Trossman said.

Leonard Page, former general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, is presiding as an outside hearing officer. He will hear testimony from the three affected locals, as well as from the international union's Long-Term Care Division.

Page Declines to Recuse Himself

At the outset of the hearing, Page said he would not recuse himself as requested by UHW West officials, according to an entry on a UHW blog that was written by a member attending the hearing.

Days before the hearing began, a UHW official called on Page to resign, contending a conflict of interest exists because his law firm has a "substantial business relationship" with the international and Page is a longtime colleague of SEIU's general counsel (134 DLR A-13, 7/14/08 a0b6u9g3j4).

On the UHW blog, member Michael Rivera, who is a respiratory therapist at Tarzana Regional Medical Center, wrote that Page told the hearing that his employment with a law firm that has done work for the SEIU international does not present a conflict because he does not handle those cases. Also, Rivera said Page asserted that the billing affords him no compensation involving SEIU cases. Page also said that his ties to SEIU General Counsel Judy Scott are from "a partial work history over 30 years," Rivera reported.

Sometime after the two-day hearing, which concludes July 15, Page will issue a written report and recommendations to the international executive board, which can either accept, reject, or amend it. Trossman told BNA he did not know the timetable for such a report, but said it was likely to be "weeks, not days."

Once the report is issued, a vote of the affected members will take place, Trossman said. UHW believes the international should allow each local to vote separately on whether to merge with another local, contending that if the votes are pooled, all 65,000 long-term care members could vote "no" and still be merged into another local. Trossman, however, contended that pooling the affected voters is more democratic.

Speakers at the UHW rally said the move by the international was retaliation for UHW's criticism of the international's decision to proceed with what it considers "concessionary" alliance deals with nursing home operators.

But Trossman countered that the hearing process on consolidating California's long-term workers preceded UHW's campaign against SEIU's negotiating tactic.