SEIU leaves nursing home amid growing anti-union sentiment
Anti-union workers at a nursing home in Canton, New York, have ousted the Service Employees International Union from their facility, according to local reports.Employees at Canton United Helpers Nursing Home voted by a slim margin to join the SEIU in 2001. Since then, according to a local union representative, many workers had filed petitions for decertification at every contract renewal meeting. Pro-union sentiment prevailed during the last vote in 2005, but again by the slimmest of margins. After workers at the facility field yet another decertification petition for this December's contract meeting, the SEIU decided to walk away.
The decision wasn't made lightly, union representative Kathy Tucker told the Watertown Daily Times. Those workers are the lowest paid with the worst benefits in the area, she said.
