NUHW was founded in 2009 by former members of United Healthcare Workers-West, a local of the Service Employees International Union, after the local was placed in trusteeship by a federal judge. The leaders of SEIU-UHW at that time, including President Sal Rosselli, resisted efforts by SEIU International to control the local's democratic decision-making process against the will of its members and in violation of the local's constitution. The local's leadership and the international leadership were at odds over the proposed removal of 65 000 long term healthcare workers into the LA based local 6434 run by the corrupt Tyrone Freeman. SEIU International responded by putting the local into trusteeship. Following SEIU International's implementation of the trusteeship, SEIU-UHW rank-and-file leaders voted to form NUHW, and thousands of member soon voted to leave SEIU-UHW and join NUHW. To date, 9,438 healthcare workers have left SEIU-UHW for NUHW. NUHW represents 15,000 workers at hospitals and nursing homes throughout California. NUHW has led the fight on mental health parity. The union's 3,500 Kaiser Permanente mental health clinicians — psychologists, therapists, social workers, and psychiatric nurses — waged a successful five-year battle to hold California's largest HMO accountable to its patients, forcing Kaiser to hire 500 additional clinicians and winning an unprecedented appointment ratio. The ratio allows clinicians to see four returning patients for every new patient, thereby ensuring that their returning patients get access to timely, appropriate care.
Membership
NUHW has won elections to represent 15,000 healthcare workers in California. NUHW represents healthcare workers at four St. Joseph hospitals in Humboldt and Sonoma counties -- St. Joseph Eureka, Redwood Memorial Hospital, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, and Petaluma Valley Hospital; Sutter Health's California Pacific Medical Center and Visiting Nurses Association of Santa Cruz; the University of California's Keck Hospital; UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland; Alameda County's jails; Kindred Hospitals in San Leandro, Brea, and Westminster; Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital in Hollister; Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital; Marin General Hospital; Providence Tarzana Medical Center; Lakewood Medical Center; Los Alamitos Medical Center; Mission Neighborhood Health Clinic ; North American nursing homes in the Sacramento area; Brius-owned San Rafael Healthcare and Wellness Center and Novato Healthcare Center ; San Francisco Nursing Center; The Sequoias ; Seton Medical Center and Seton Coastside. NUHW also represents Kaiser Permanente's Southern California Healthcare Professionals, and all of Kaiser's California mental health clinicians.
