A challenge to a bitterly fought election for 10,000 Fresno County homecare workers has ended with the withdrawal of a complaint that was set for a hearing Wednesday.
The National Union of Healthcare Workers notified the Public Employment Relations Board on Tuesday that it was withdrawing its challenge and complaint of the 2009 narrow election win by the Services Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers-West.
NUHW had alleged election misconduct by SEIU, including voter intimidation, illegal threats and ballot manipulation.
"Four years after the fact, it's just not possible to go forward, unfortunately," NUHW Secretary-Treasurer John Borsos said Wednesday. A high turnover among workers since the election made it difficult to find people willing to come forward to testify, and SEIU also has discouraged dissent, he said.
On Wednesday, SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan said the withdrawal of the complaint "allows us to not be distracted and have to waste time and energy and resources on frivolous allegations."
The 2009 election for Fresno County homecare workers was the first large-scale contest between the SEIU union and the NUHW. The unions have been locked in conflict since the NUHW was launched in January 2009 out of a rift over leadership of the United Healthcare Workers-West, the Oakland-based local of the SEIU.
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