SEIU United Healthcare Workers West -

Their Misinformation Campaign

For the past decade, the leaders of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West have been conducting an ongoing misinformation campaign (technically referred to as a "corporate campaign") against the organizations that comprise the not-for-profit Sutter Health network of hospitals and doctors.

"Death of a thousand cuts rather than a single blow."
Frustrated over its lack of success in attracting new union members through traditional organizing efforts, SEIU United Healthcare Workers West has been orchestrating a systematic campaign designed to disrupt health care services and embarrass our network and our affiliated organizations. One union leader described this type of campaign as: "Death of a thousand cuts rather than a single blow."

The goal of the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West campaign is to grow union membership and dues, at any cost. SEIU United Healthcare Workers West is attempting to force Sutter Health leaders to recognize and endorse SEIU as the union of choice for employees throughout our network.

"We're putting more of our members' resources into organizing new workers. . . to increase strength and power."
Sal Rosselli, President, SEIU, United Healthcare Workers West (San Francisco Chronicle, 5/29/2005)

Sutter Health's affiliated organizations are fundamentally opposed to choosing a particular labor union for their employees.

Because of our unwillingness to force this particular union on employees, Sutter Health and its affiliates continue to be the target of a focused campaign by SEIU United Healthcare Workers West.

A Costly Campaign
SEIU United Healthcare Workers West's CEO admits spending more than $2.5 million per year in member dues money on its campaign against Sutter Health. "We spend a lot more of our members' dollars struggling with Sutter than Sutter workers pay in dues," said SEIU's Sal Rosselli in an August 17, 2004 article in the San Francisco Chronicle. (SEIU United Healthcare Workers West represents about 4,000 employees within the Sutter Health network; members pay about $650 per year to the union.)

As part of this destructive and costly campaign, SEIU:

• Is aggressively opposing Sutter-affiliated Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s plans to build a medical campus on the Peninsula.
• Urged CalPERS to take action against Sutter Health hospitals. Union-affiliated CalPERS board members voted to drop a number of Sutter hospitals from their provider network despite Sutter’s high quality rankings and despite an offer from Sutter Health that would have allowed CalPERS to achieve substantial financial savings while preserving the network.
• Tried to stop construction of Sutter-affiliated Novato Community Hospital in Marin County and Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center of Santa Cruz.
• Called for the State of California to take away the tax-exempt, charitable status of Sutter Health.
• Tried to stop Sutter Health from accessing the bond market to make repairs and improvements to a number of Sutter-affiliated hospitals. The union then sent news releases to discourage investors from buying the bonds.
• Sent letters to individuals who have donated money to Sutter-affiliated hospitals and urged them to not contribute.
• Mounted a publicity campaign to discourage leaders of a struggling sole community provider hospital (Del Puerto, July 1997) in the San Joaquin Valley from becoming part of Sutter Health. The hospital took the union’s advice, chose another system partner and was immediately closed down. The union took credit for helping to affect the decision, but kept quiet when the hospital closed.
• Forced the cancellation of a Sutter Delta Medical Center-sponsored community event intended to raise money for critical breast cancer diagnostic equipment.
• Spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to prevent Castro Valley’s Eden Medical Center, Sonoma County Hospital, Oakland’s Summit Medical Center and San Francisco’s St. Luke’s Hospital from joining the Sutter Health network. Affiliation with a system was critical to the continued operation of these hospitals. Today they are all more stable organizations offering new programs and services.

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Here's What Others Have to Say:

"The pattern is easy to identify. When labor unions or other interest groups dislike a particular industry, they mount a shrill public relations campaign to demonize that industry. That's followed by questionable studies that provide the 'evidence' of the evils of that industry, and then the legislators start writing laws to punish said industry. . . "
Orange County Register, August 2004

"It's important for labor unions to take on a particular industry and organize it market-wide. For us to change the downslide in the percentage of workers we represent, we have to think differently. Corporate campaigns make sense."
Sal Rosselli, President, United Healthcare Workers West; Sacramento Business Journal; June 4, 2004

". . .pressure on corporations, building alliances with religious and community groups, prodding political allies to take strong positions, and creating a sense of crisis and urgency are all part of the bag of tricks unions are pulling from. . ."
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 13, 2000

"Sal Roselli is not one to mince words. President of SEIU's new statewide bargaining unit, he beats the bushes for dirt… Rhetoric aside, the fight is over union organizing -- or lack thereof. SEIU has tried unsuccessfully to organize Sutter workers."
Sacramento Business Journal, May 13, 2005

"The Service Employees International Union wants to organize Sutter Health. . . So the labor union has persuaded friends on the Sacramento City Council to push for a new layer of city regulation to retard Sutter's expansion plans in its headquarters city, giving the union another tool to use against Sutter. . . It's plainly a grab for power."
Sacramento Business Journal Editorial, Oct. 14, 2005