Tell SEIU President Andy Stern to Stop The Violent Harassment of Nurses!

Join the thousands of national RNs who have already signed!

RN Leaders of California Nurses Association/NNOC Demand Andy Stern Immediately Cease SEIU’s Harassment and Stalking of Nurses at Home and on Patient Care Floors.  Furthermore, Condemn the Violent Service Union's Attack at the Michigan event on April 12th where Hundreds of SEIU Staff Smash Into the Meeting to Attack RNs and Break Up the Conference on Union Democracy.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Stop SEIU's Intimidation and Harassment of Nurses!

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

It is completely unacceptable for SEIU to insult, harass, and bully nurses, as was done recently in Michigan and as continues to occur in California.

Your goal is obvious: to stop nurses from the passionate patient advocacy that has become the calling card of CNA/NNOC.

No doubt this is good for the employers you have signed corporate partnerships with, but it is dangerous for our patients.

Patients thrive when their nurses are able to advocate for their care. Period. You do not speak for nurses, and have no right to interfere in our union democracy.

These tactics are a new low, and we demand that you renounce them, apologize to the affected families, and stop this intimidation immediately.

Signed by:

Campaign Launched:
April 15, 2008


Background Information

Registered Nurses Beware...
The Service Employees union’s threat to RN patient advocacy and democratic rights

In response to the growing national movement for ratios and greater RN power at the bedside and the public arena, the hospital industry is fighting back. They found a willing ally in the Service Employees International Union. SEIU is a non-RN union — only 2% of their members are RNs — for a reason: registered nurses know SEIU cannot be counted on to protect RN professional practice.

They negotiate deals with employers solely to gain new members, and in exchange they lobby against legislative reforms that would protect patients and accept contracts that weaken RN standards.

The SEIU record:

  • Signed a deal in Ohio with Catholic Healthcare Partners to impose SEIU as the union for RNs without a single signed union card from the nurses in a rigged election that barred any other union from being on the ballot. The deal also prohibited nurses from talking about the union or the vote. The "union" vote was requested by the employer, not the employees.

  • Under a pact with California nursing homes, agreed to lobby against reforms to require better patient care conditions in nursing homes, and to give management the "exclusive right" to set pay, discipline employees,

  • Joined with the New York Hospital Association to endorse the closure of more than a dozen public hospitals and nursing homes in New York state.

  • Lobbied against the California RN-to-patient ratio law, opposed tougher penalties against hospitals that willfully violate the law, and pushed for regulations to expand the role of LPNs to replace RNs in hospitals and other clinical settings.

  • Joined with Wal-Mart’s CEO to push for sham healthcare reform while providing political cover for Wal-Mart’s failure to offer decent health coverage to its employees.

  • Sign our petition and ask other RNs to join you!