OAKLAND, Calif. – The following statement was released by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) regarding charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Inter-Con, a contractor used by Kaiser Permanente for the protection of employees and patients:
Security officers employed by Inter-Con to protect Kaiser Permanente patients and staff across California today filed federal charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against their employer for spying on, threatening, interrogating, and intimidating workers on the job.
As officers finish out a week of protests and actions and prepare for a one-day strike on Friday, April 4, the civil rights violations and unfair labor practices committed by Inter-Con management are intensifying.
Just yesterday afternoon, in Hayward, workers braved the stares of Inter-Con management representatives who had come from as far away as Fairfield and Pasadena. Management continued to break the law by photographing picketing workers. Still, security officers stood up for themselves and for the Kaiser staff and patients they protect.
“We needed to come out here because we’ve been struggling for over two years for a voice on the job. Inter-Con should let us make up our own minds about forming a union instead of scaring people. They’re pulling us aside to ask us who is going to picket or strike, who’s a union supporter. They’re even trying to call us in for an extra day of work on Friday, but we’re striking,” said Angelito Morales, who has been with Inter-Con for 10 years at Kaiser Union City Medical Center, near the Hayward facility.
“My supervisor pulled me aside the other day and ordered me first to tell him who was planning on striking. Then he told me to go ask my co-workers if they were striking. What are you supposed to do when your supervisor does that? It’s scary and it’s got to stop. We want to form a union for a voice on the job, and for real protections,” said Ankit Vora, an Inter-Con security officer at Kaiser Hayward Medical Center.
Since November 2005, 1,500 Inter-Con security officers at Kaiser Permanente have been working to improve security and working conditions by forming a union with Service Employees International Union (SEIU). They are possibly the only group of workers at Kaiser -either direct employees or subcontracted workers-who are being denied the right to form a union and left out of the Kaiser’s Labor Management Partnership. Inter-Con responded to these workers’ organizing efforts with intimidation, threats and surveillance of their union activities in violation of law.
“My Inter-Con boss called me at home the other night and asked me to tell him whether I was coming in or not during the strike. It’s frightening. He’s my boss and he’s breaking the law, calling me at home and asking me what I’m going to do. By uniting in SEIU, we can protect ourselves from intimidation like this,” said Jimmy de la Cruz, an Inter-Con security officer at Kaiser Fremont Medical Center.
The Federal charges allege that Inter-Con managers at Kaiser facilities have:
- Ordered employees to inform management when individuals at the job site were engaging in union activities.
- Interrogated employees, asking them to disclose the names of individuals who intend to engage in union activities.
- Spied on employees, photographing and/or otherwise recording employees as they participated in union activities such as picketing.
- Interrogated at least one worker about planned strike activities, asking whether or not the worker was planning on participating in the strike.
- Promised workers improved benefits (healthcare), to deter them from engaging in further union activities.
Inter-Con security officers across California have held a series of actions this week to protest Inter-Con’s unfair labor practices. The actions will culminate in an unfair labor practice strike at several Kaiser healthcare facilities protected by Inter-Con security officers in Northern California on Friday, April 4 and a coordinated rally in solidarity with striking workers in Los Angeles.
Across California, SEIU members from all professions are uniting to stand behind Inter-Con security officers at Kaiser in their struggle, and are joining them in pickets, rallies and other activities.
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SEIU April 3, 2008 press release
