SEIU Propaganda Campaign Hits California Health Care
California's Prime Healthcare Services (PHS), a private for-profit hospital chain, is fighting back against ugly propaganda and extortive threats from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The California Public Policy Center's Unionwatch site has a quick and dirty summary of the charges:
PHS rejected SEIU's demands for a "quick" deal for SEIU members at PHS' Centinela Hospital Medical Center so that SEIU could avoid a challenge from NUHW, an upstart union formed by disgruntled SEIU members. SEIU initially threatened to expose "dirt" on PHS, disseminate reports based on Medicare data, and claim that these reports showed that Medicare patients were acquiring serious blood infections like septicemia at PHS' hospitals even though SEIU knew that the Medicare data identified conditions present on admission; not hospital acquired conditions.
The Unionwatch site also links to a full summary of the excruciatingly detailed press release from PHS announcing that it has reported the SEIU to the U.S. Attorney's office. Other lowlights include SEIU officials claiming they would have PHS executives fired if the provider didn't eliminate secret-ballot unionization; claims that PHS hospitals were not earthquake safe; and union lobbying of the Securities and Exchange Commission to delay a public stock offering.
More from Reason on dirty, desperate unions here.